tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/coal-mining-4177/articlesCoal mining – The Conversation2023-12-18T19:10:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199122023-12-18T19:10:06Z2023-12-18T19:10:06ZFrom laggard to leader? Why Australia must phase out fossil fuel exports, starting now<p>For years <a href="https://priceofoil.org/2021/11/12/fossil-fuelled-five-report/">large fossil fuel producers</a> — <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-know-if-a-country-is-serious-about-net-zero-look-at-its-plans-for-extracting-fossil-fuels-170508">including Australia</a> — have <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/production-gap-report-2023">expanded</a> fossil fuel production while maintaining rhetorically that the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But global emissions are overwhelmingly caused by the extraction, transport and burning of fossil fuels. Unless fossil fuels are phased out, emissions will grow and the climate crisis will worsen.</p>
<p>At COP28 climate negotiations in Dubai, which wrapped up last week, this fact finally became the centre of attention. And fossil fuel producers were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/opec-chief-urges-members-reject-any-cop28-deal-that-targets-fossil-fuels-2023-12-08/">feeling the pressure</a> — forced to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/opec-members-push-against-including-fossil-fuels-phase-out-cop28-deal-2023-12-09/">defend their expansion of fossil fuels</a> or change their tune.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Australia seems to be doing the latter, at least rhetorically. While successive governments have <a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2021/07/double-game">worked assiduously</a> to keep fossil fuel production out of the spotlight at the UN talks, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/press-conference-cop28-dubai-0">said</a> Australia supports the global phasing out of fossil fuels in energy systems by 2050. Clearly eager to avoid being seen as the villain at the talks, Bowen named Saudi Arabia as the main blocker to an agreement on phasing out fossil fuels.</p>
<p>But the text of COP decisions matters much less than the actions states and companies take. Australia — one of the <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/P667-High-Carbon-from-a-Land-Down-Under-WEB_0_0.pdf">world’s largest producers and exporters</a> of fossil fuel-based carbon dioxide — is fuelling the problem, not solving it. Currently, Australian companies are moving to expand fossil fuel production: <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/resources-and-energy-major-projects-2022">more than 100 major coal, oil and gas projects</a> are in planning, at a cost of around A$200 billion. Some of these are “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2022/may/11/fossil-fuel-carbon-bombs-climate-breakdown-oil-gas">carbon bombs</a>,” likely to add huge quantities of emissions.</p>
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<h2>Why Australia faces charges of hypocrisy</h2>
<p>The Albanese government has already <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/ten-and-rising-albanese-government-new-fossil-fuel-approvals-unveiled/">approved</a> a number of new fossil fuel projects, <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/how-labor-out-loved-the-coalition-in-its-embrace-of-big-oil-and-gas/">embracing</a> the fossil fuel expansionism of its conservative predecessors. But now that Australia has declared support for a global phase-out of fossil fuels, it must curtail its own exports or face continued <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/missing-half-the-equation-scientists-criticise-australia-over-approach-to-fossil-fuels">charges of hypocrisy</a>.</p>
<p>How could Australia do that while managing the fallout? Interestingly, Bowen’s <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/transcripts/press-conference-cop28-dubai-0">rhetoric at COP</a> contained the seeds of an answer: a “phase out of fossil fuels is Australia’s economic opportunity as [a] renewable energy superpower”. In line with this sentiment, Australia should adopt the mission of leading the Asia-Pacific region to a prosperous future by simultaneously phasing out its fossil fuel exports while phasing up its clean energy exports; by becoming a <a href="https://www.bze.org.au/research/report/renewable-energy-superpower">clean energy superpower</a> instead of a dirty energy one.</p>
<p>Doing so would require a dramatic shift in Australia’s international climate posture: from a defensive, parochial, technocratic stance aimed at protecting fossil fuel expansion to proactive, outward-looking and pragmatic leadership; from merely focusing on its own territorial emissions to using all powers at its disposal in its <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/climate-policy-and-our-sphere-of-influence/">sphere of influence</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-fought-cop28-agreement-suggests-the-days-of-fossil-fuels-are-numbered-but-climate-catastrophe-is-not-yet-averted-219597">Hard-fought COP28 agreement suggests the days of fossil fuels are numbered – but climate catastrophe is not yet averted</a>
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<h2>First a new project ban, then a net zero plan</h2>
<p>Our coal and gas exports are entirely within our sovereign control, and give us enormous leverage over our regional trading partners. No one is suggesting stopping fossil fuel exports overnight. But we could start by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/21/the-latest-ipcc-report-makes-it-clear-no-new-fossil-fuel-projects-can-be-opened-that-includes-us-australia">banning new projects</a>, and then convening our regional partners to work out a plan to phase out existing production and consumption. Australian leadership would involve supporting our neighbours —through investment, trade and aid —to ensure their populations can access energy from zero-carbon sources, just as we’re aspiring to do at home.</p>
<p>Phasing out fossil fuel exports is thus best conceptualised as part of a shift in our foreign and trade policy aimed at securing our and our region’s prosperity against the existential threat of climate change — and amid a global pivot to clean energy. Call it “<a href="https://www.bze.org.au/research/report/laggard-to-leader#:%7E:text=Laggard%20to%20Leader%20is%20a,and%20accelerated%20through%20international%20cooperation.">cooperative decarbonisation</a>”. Viewed in this light, the typical objections to a fossil fuel phase-out in Australia look pathetic.</p>
<h2>The weak objections to a phase-out</h2>
<p>The first objection claims we are not responsible for the overseas emissions produced from burning our exported coal and gas. This falsely conflates Australia’s national interest in reducing emissions globally with its international legal responsibility for <a href="https://legalresponse.org/legaladvice/reporting-requirements-under-article-13-paris-agreement/">reporting emissions</a> locally.</p>
<p>Nothing in the Paris Agreement prevents a country from taking actions that would reduce or avoid emissions in another country. It is reckless and self-defeating to concern ourselves only with emissions produced on our territory when our power to influence global emissions is so much greater. Let’s hope that Bowen’s rhetorical shift at COP28 signals acceptance of this fact.</p>
<p>The second objection is that leaving our fossil fuels in the ground will not affect global emissions, because if we don’t sell our coal and gas, someone else will. Aside from its immorality (the “drug dealer’s defence”), the objection defies Economics 101: if you reduce supply of a product, its price goes up, causing demand to contract. Other countries might supply <em>some</em> of the shortfall, but Australia is such a big producer that it is implausible to think we could exit the coal and gas markets without dramatically reducing global emissions.</p>
<p>Moreover, it’s shortsighted to think of fossil fuel export policy in isolation from the wider foreign policy choices we face. Australia’s current foreign policy is to <a href="https://www.australianforeignaffairs.com/articles/extract/2021/07/double-game">promote our coal and gas exports</a>: we literally pay public servants to help multinational companies sell more coal and gas. But if we gave our diplomats the nobler mission of leading our region’s decarbonisation, our leadership would help to make trade in fossil fuels redundant.</p>
<p>The last oft-heard objection is that phasing out fossil fuel production would cost too much. The foreign-owned corporations that produce most of our coal and gas <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/australia-wins-plaudits-for-move-on-multinational-tax-dodgers-but-much-more-is-needed-on-fossil-front/">pay little tax</a> and <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/employment-aspects-of-the-transition-from-fossil-fuels-in-australia/">employ relatively few people</a>, while capturing <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/P1378-Fossil-fuel-subsidies-2023-Web.pdf">billions of dollars in state and federal government subsidies</a>. Scaling up as a clean energy superpower could bring more economic growth, jobs and tax revenue than would be lost from fossil fuels — especially if we <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/a-real-plan-to-tackle-energy-prices-climate-and-the-budget/">taxed the fossil fuel industry properly</a> on its way out.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hyped-and-expensive-hydrogen-has-a-place-in-australias-energy-transition-but-only-with-urgent-government-support-219004">Hyped and expensive, hydrogen has a place in Australia’s energy transition, but only with urgent government support</a>
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<h2>Phase-outs can be done: lessons from overseas</h2>
<p>Denmark, France, Ireland and Costa Rica are <a href="https://beyondoilandgasalliance.org/">among a number</a> of countries that have foregone new fossil fuel exploration and production opportunities; others are <a href="https://www.iisd.org/articles/just-transition-examples">working to phase out existing</a> operations. Doing so is undoubtedly challenging: firms, workers and the communities in which fossil fuel operations are located understandably tend to resist policies that would close their industry.</p>
<p>But government support can smooth the transition. The Spanish government, for instance, negotiated a “just transition agreement” with unions and businesses to phase out coal mining, support affected workers and invest in their communities. My coauthors and I <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-to-get-coal-country-to-vote-for-climate-policy-the-effect-of-a-just-transition-agreement-on-spanish-election-results/25FE7B96445E74387D598087649FDCC3">found</a> this strategy actually increased the government’s vote share at a subsequent election in the coal regions.</p>
<p>A phase-out of fossil fuel production is <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/employment-aspects-of-the-transition-from-fossil-fuels-in-australia/">entirely feasible</a> for a country with our resources, skills and diverse economy. The standard objections provide fossil fuel companies, and the politicians they’ve captured, with convenient excuses for cashing in while the planet — and Australia — burns. It’s time, instead, for bold actions that lead us and our region to a prosperous, fossil-free future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop28-deal-confirms-what-australia-already-knows-coal-is-out-of-vogue-and-out-of-time-219906">COP28 deal confirms what Australia already knows: coal is out of vogue and out of time</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fergus Green is affiliated with the Powering Past Coal Alliance - is a coalition of national and subnational governments, businesses and organisations working to advance the transition from unabated coal power generation to clean energy. He is a member of the Alliance's Just Transition Expert Group.</span></em></p>Australia supported a phase-out of fossil fuels at the recent UN climate summit but is still expanding coal and gas production. It’s a contradiction that threatens the planet. There is a better way.Fergus Green, Lecturer in Political Theory and Public Policy, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187062023-11-29T19:17:52Z2023-11-29T19:17:52ZWhat is a ‘just’ transition to net zero - and why is Australia struggling to get there?<p>Australia’s net-zero transition is struggling. Despite the government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-will-underwrite-risky-investments-in-renewables-heres-why-thats-a-good-idea-218427">efforts</a>, announced last week, to revive flagging investment in renewable energy, greenhouse gas emissions from existing industry are still <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/time-is-running-out-to-reach-our-emissions-target-and-our-path-needs-changing/">rising</a>. Yet under the Paris Agreement, Australia must adopt <a href="https://www.climatecollege.unimelb.edu.au/australias-paris-agreement-pathways">even more ambitious targets</a> for 2035.</p>
<p>At the same time, governments in Australia and overseas are facing <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-beat-rollout-rage-the-environment-versus-climate-battle-dividing-regional-australia-213863">rising community opposition</a> to the rollout of clean energy infrastructure needed for a net zero transition. Such opposition is being <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/robert-lambrou-alternative-for-germany-heat-pump-election-climate-change/">exploited by right-wing parties</a> for electoral gain.</p>
<p>But that pressure only underscores what the Australian government must do. To lift its climate game, it needs a mission-oriented, whole-of-government approach, built on what is known as a “<a href="https://climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-stories/what-just-transition-and-why-it-important">just transition</a>”.</p>
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<h2>The two main elements of a just transition</h2>
<p>A just transition requires both <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-human-factor-why-australias-net-zero-transition-risks-failing-unless-it-is-fair-214064">distributive justice</a> and procedural justice. Distributive justice means policies that ensure a fair distribution of the economic burdens and benefits of the climate transition, along with protections for low-income people.</p>
<p>Procedural justice includes – but goes beyond – engaging with workers directly impacted by the decline of fossil fuel production. It means going beyond engagement with stakeholders that mainly represent incumbent industries.</p>
<p>A just transition would give all of Australia’s communities a chance to not only take part in discussions about the costs and benefits of different approaches to net zero, but also to have a say in designing climate policies that directly affect them.</p>
<p>The success of the net zero transition may depend on the government’s willingness to use the expertise of local communities in finding solutions for the lands and waters they know best.</p>
<p>The Labor government <a href="https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/news/net-zero-authority-gives-more-australians-a-chance-to-prosper-from-renewables">signed</a> the <a href="https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20230313132211/https://ukcop26.org/supporting-the-conditions-for-a-just-transition-internationally/">Just Transition Declaration</a> at last year’s <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop27">COP27 global climate summit</a> at Sharm el-Sheikh. The declaration spells out this idea in its second principle:</p>
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<p>the development of effective, nationally coherent, locally driven and delivered just transition plans within countries is dependent on effective and inclusive social dialogue.</p>
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<p>Yet the Albanese government’s net-zero strategy has no explicit commitment to a just transition. Instead, its piecemeal strategy lacks integration and avoids tackling the essential phase-out of fossil fuels.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-could-australia-actually-get-to-net-zero-heres-how-217778">How could Australia actually get to net zero? Here's how</a>
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<h2>Many government bodies – but is there a plan?</h2>
<p>In May the government announced it would establish a statutory <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/news/new-national-net-zero-authority">Net Zero Authority</a> “to ensure the workers, industries and communities that have powered Australia for generations can seize the opportunities of Australia’s net zero transformation.”</p>
<p>The authority is expected to “help investors and companies to engage with net zero transformation opportunities,” to help regions and communities attract new investment in clean energy, and to assist workers in the transition away from emissions-intensive industries.</p>
<p>To design the legislation to create the Net Zero Authority and to “immediately kick-start” its work, in July the government set up an interim body known as the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/news/net-zero-economy-agency">Net Zero Economic Agency</a>, located in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.</p>
<p>The agency is chaired by former Labor climate change minister Greg Combet and supported by a ten-member <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/appointment-net-zero-economy-agency-and-advisory-board">advisory board</a>. The mining industry and mining unions are well represented, holding three seats. However, many key stakeholders, including environmental and climate NGOs and the social welfare sector, are not represented.</p>
<p>At the same time, climate minister Chris Bowen has established a <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/joint-media-release-delivering-australias-climate-and-energy-transformation">Net Zero Taskforce</a> in the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water to advise on the 2035 emissions reduction target and the plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050.</p>
<p>Guided by the advice of the Climate Change Authority, the taskforce will develop <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reduction/net-zero">six sectoral decarbonisation plans</a> in:</p>
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<li>electricity and energy</li>
<li>industry</li>
<li>resources</li>
<li>the built environment</li>
<li>agriculture and land</li>
<li>transport.</li>
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<p>How the work of all these bodies fits together is unclear. An overarching Net Zero National Cabinet Committee, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-urgently-needs-a-climate-plan-and-a-net-zero-national-cabinet-committee-to-implement-it-213866">as suggested</a> by the Grattan Institute’s Tony Wood, could provide the necessary coordination, as long as it is guided by an integrated strategy for a net zero just transition.</p>
<p>Yet a just transition is not mentioned on government websites relating to the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reduction/net-zero">interim agency</a> and the <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reduction/net-zero">taskforce</a>, other than to say that they will engage with communities, industry, First Nations, and unions, with an emphasis on affected workers in regions. There is no earmarked funding, institutional innovation, or capacity building to enable inclusive dialogues across communities and society.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australia-urgently-needs-a-climate-plan-and-a-net-zero-national-cabinet-committee-to-implement-it-213866">Why Australia urgently needs a climate plan and a Net Zero National Cabinet Committee to implement it</a>
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<h2>Lessons in dialogue at home and overseas</h2>
<p>The Net Zero Authority is well positioned to coordinate and fund such dialogues, which are best approached from a perspective geared towards <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2022.2108365">systemic change</a>.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/">Sydney Policy Lab</a> has found in its community “listening campaign” on the climate transition in <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-policy-lab/research-and-policy/real-deal.html">Geelong</a>, the authority’s transition planning will lack support if it ignores the issues (such as secure housing and affordable living) communities most worry about.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-new-dawn-becoming-a-green-superpower-with-a-big-role-in-cutting-global-emissions-216373">Australia's new dawn: becoming a green superpower with a big role in cutting global emissions</a>
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<p>Such approaches have already met with considerable success elsewhere. In Denmark, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/environment/cc/g20-climate/collapsecontents/Just-Transition-Centre-report-just-transition.pdf">an OECD study</a> found social dialogues have been a significant factor in the country’s successful transition to wind power. It now accounts for <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/wind-power-meets-and-beats-denmarks-total-electricity-demand-two-days-in-a-row/">a major share</a> of Denmark’s energy output.</p>
<p>And in Sweden, the government’s Innovation Agency, <a href="https://rri-tools.eu/-/designing-missions-mission-oriented-innovation-in-sweden-a-practice-guide-by-vinnova#:%7E:text=SUMMARY&text=This%20book%20describes%20how%20Vinnova,developed%20by%20Vinnova%20in%20detail">Vinnova</a>, has recently developed highly collaborative processes for redesigning energy, food and other systems to achieve net zero and other goals.</p>
<p>Far from slowing the transition, a commitment to inclusive dialogue will secure it by building the social license for change, while ensuring some measure of accountability for the injustices of the fossil fuel era.</p>
<p>The more inclusive the dialogue, the better the government will be able to minimise political backlash as decarbonisation accelerates.</p>
<h2>A national net zero summit</h2>
<p>To reach these outcomes will need significant coordination between federal, state and local governments, and across government departments.</p>
<p>To jumpstart this process, and building on the success of <a href="https://nexteconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/TNE-CQ-Energy-Futures-Report-02_0601.pdf">regional summits</a>, a national summit should be convened to explore the perspectives and initiatives of a wide range of stakeholders. That means not just unions and workers (as important as they may be) but also climate and energy NGOs, local governments and historically marginalised communities.</p>
<p>A net zero summit would place the perspectives of policy elites and incumbent interests in dialogue with the diverse demands of citizens. It must include Indigenous communities, on whose lands much of the renewable energy infrastructure is likely to be built and critical minerals likely to be extracted.</p>
<p>Debate at the summit cannot be perfunctory. It must provide ample space for many voices. The goal is to discover, propose and fund a net zero transition in ways that don’t unduly privilege the needs of investors and companies, but instead champion the wisdom and solutions of local communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-juukan-gorge-how-first-nations-people-are-taking-charge-of-clean-energy-projects-on-their-land-213864">Beyond Juukan Gorge: how First Nations people are taking charge of clean energy projects on their land</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Eckersley has received research funding in the past from the Australian Research Council and she currently hold a research grant with the Research Council of Norway. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Fitz-Henry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s clean energy transition cannot succeed unless the government opens debate and decision-making to many more voices.Robyn Eckersley, Redmond Barry Professor of Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of MelbourneErin Fitz-Henry, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of Melbourne, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172772023-11-08T06:05:13Z2023-11-08T06:05:13ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Former climate minister Greg Combet on Australia’s mission to reach net-zero<p>As climate minister in the former Labor government, Greg Combet has endured the rigours of the “climate wars”. He oversaw the highly contentious move to put a price on carbon, which ultimately came to grief under the Abbott government.</p>
<p>Fast forward a decade: now Combet has been appointed by Anthony Albanese to chair the government’s new Net-Zero Economy Agency. This agency, due later to become a statutory authority, is described on its website as: </p>
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<p>responsible for promoting orderly and positive economic transformation across Australia as the world decarbonises, to ensure Australia, its regions and workers realise and share the benefits of the net zero economy. </p>
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<p>Combet joins The Conversation to discuss the enormous challenges of Australia’s transition to renewable energy, its complications, and what is necessary to achieve our 2030 and 2050 commitments.</p>
<p>Combet has previously referred to Australia’s transition to renewable energy as “akin to post-war reconstruction”. He says: </p>
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<p>It’s massive. […] So just for example, the total value of coal and liquefied natural gas exports in financial year ‘22 alone was almost $200 billion. And it’s not just a significance to the Australian economy and the many regions that depend upon that extraction and export and utilisation of fossil fuels. </p>
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<p>Combet admits the government has “some pretty significant challenges” to achieve its 2030 target of having 82% of electricity generated by renewables: </p>
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<p>It’s being limited by our capacity to deliver on the extensions of the transmission grid. There are social licence considerations, and that is basically taking the community along with this type of change. </p>
<p>We’re really going to have to, I think, collaborate and knuckle down in order to be able to achieve that 82% target and bring in the level of investment that’s necessary both in renewable generation and the poles and wires that are needed.</p>
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<p>As Australia pursues its 2030 and 2050 commitments, Combet is very aware government policy is having an impact on job security. </p>
<p>He has advanced the idea of “special measures” for those losing jobs as a resuklt of the energy transition.</p>
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<p>I think governments and the community more generally have a responsibility to workers impacted in that way, to ensure that their opportunity to find alternative employment or to retire with dignity, if that’s what an individual might prefer, or to gain the skills to do something new and different.</p>
<p>You rightly point out my trade union past, I was 25 years a trade union official, and I’ve dealt with many industry restructurings and I think I can figure what additional measures government might be able to bring to the table, to help people better than we’ve done in the past.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-treasurer-jim-chalmers-pumps-up-his-role-in-energy-transition-216907">Grattan on Friday: Treasurer Jim Chalmers pumps up his role in energy transition</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this podcast, former Labor climate change minister Greg Combet joins The Conversation to discuss net-zero, and Australia's future as a "renewable energy superpower".Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2163462023-10-26T01:54:33Z2023-10-26T01:54:33ZAll mines close. How can mining towns like Mount Isa best manage the ups and downs?<p>The <a href="https://www.glencore.com.au/media-and-insights/news/mount-isa-mines-operational-changes">announcement</a> by Glencore last week that its Mount Isa copper mines will close in 2025 is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-18/mount-isa-residents-react-to-glencore-copper-mine-closure/102990846">significant for the town</a>. </p>
<p>The closures affect <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-19/glencore-copper-mine-mount-isa-closes/102994426">at least 1,200 jobs</a> in the Queensland outback community of 21,000 people. Those affected include mine workers, contractors, suppliers and businesses.</p>
<p>Questions raised by the closures have wider relevance for how other towns and regions across Australia manage mines as they come and go.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1714834054531715333"}"></div></p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cleaning-up-australias-80-000-disused-mines-is-a-huge-job-but-the-payoffs-can-outweigh-the-costs-215447">Cleaning up Australia's 80,000 disused mines is a huge job – but the payoffs can outweigh the costs</a>
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<h2>Plan the end from the beginning</h2>
<p>All mines close. However, the impact of future closures on communities is rarely front of mind when mines open. This means the issue of how towns effectively manage a mine’s closure can be treated as an afterthought. </p>
<p>One important way to ensure towns and regions can manage mining and its impacts is for community perspectives to inform public policymaking and planning. The period before a mine opens is the ideal time to openly discuss how its life – and its end of life – will play out for the community. This includes any <a href="https://www.kalkadoonpbc.com.au/">Indigenous people</a> on whose land mining is to take place.</p>
<p>Swiss multinational Glencore now owns Mount Isa Mines, which has been in international hands almost since inception. </p>
<p>The early owners brought international ideas of industrial relations and town planning to the region. This encompassed a financial guarantee to deliver a railway to the town and strategic planning of infrastructure to attract the <a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/39437/1/39437-kirkman-2011-thesis.pdf">right type of miner</a> – a family man who was more likely to establish roots in the town.</p>
<p>Townspeople’s voices were not heard in this early planning. While the original owners wished to create a “<a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/39437/1/39437-kirkman-2011-thesis.pdf">business with a soul</a>”, this may have been less benevolent than it seems. It appears this was just an early forebear of the concept of a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-license-slo.asp">social licence to operate</a>. </p>
<p>The ability for mining companies to “buy” a social licence to operate can been seen by communities as problematic. As <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1440783318773518">noted in previous research</a>, “measures taken by extractive industries to build support or ‘social licence’ for their developments are in fact experienced by these participants as destructive of community life”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/afterlife-of-the-mine-lessons-in-how-towns-remake-challenging-sites-106073">Afterlife of the mine: lessons in how towns remake challenging sites</a>
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<h2>Invest in the future during operations</h2>
<p>Once a mine is established, the focus is very much on ongoing operations. Mines seek to present themselves as part of local communities, but they typically remain very large, multinational businesses. That is, they are in the local community but not part of it. </p>
<p>Government support for mines typically continues through this period, through financial and <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/climate-change/energy-subsidies">other measures</a>. But financial benefits rarely accrue to communities, with mining royalties <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/nsw-missing-out-on-6-2b-in-coal-royalties-compared-to-queensland/">significantly less</a> than they could be.</p>
<p>Queensland recently <a href="https://www.treasury.qld.gov.au/programs-and-policies/coal-royalties/">changed coal royalties</a> so the rate increases as coal prices increase. It’s an important step for the state to secure the funds needed for the transition away from coal.</p>
<p>But this sort of forward thinking isn’t common. Mines typically deliver short-term financial gains to mine owners and wages for mine workers. </p>
<p>Set against these benefits, the costs tend to be social and environmental. </p>
<p>One obvious example is the inevitable environmental destruction that comes with mining. </p>
<p>Another can be the impacts on people’s health. For example, the effect of <a href="https://theconversation.com/pregnant-women-and-parents-misled-about-dangers-of-living-with-lead-pollution-52752">lead pollution on children</a> is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214790X20302938">well-known problem</a> in Mount Isa.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mount-isa-contamination-within-guidelines-but-residents-told-to-clean-their-homes-72862">Mount Isa contamination 'within guidelines' but residents told to clean their homes</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mine processing plant and smelter lit up at night" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555953/original/file-20231025-23-mx1ha4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Children in Mount Isa have elevated levels of lead in their blood, with those living closest to the smelter recording the worst school test results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mount-isa-mine-processing-plant-industrial-1250355163">Jason Benz Bennee/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>While those involved in mining receive financial benefits, the rest of the community can often find itself at an economic disadvantage. “Two-speed economies” can be seen in such mining towns. In Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, for example, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-28/housing-crisis-forces-family-into-tent-in-hunter-valley/101476812">housing disadvantage is rising</a> among those who aren’t benefiting from a mining wage. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-restore-the-land-as-coal-mines-close-heres-a-community-blueprint-to-sustain-the-hunter-valley-198792">'We need to restore the land': as coal mines close, here's a community blueprint to sustain the Hunter Valley</a>
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<h2>Involve locals in planning transitions</h2>
<p>Looking ahead, the people of Mount Isa undoubtedly face significant challenges, including a <a href="https://www.longpaddock.qld.gov.au/qld-future-climate/adapting/heatwaves/">far less stable climate</a>. Ensuring community voices are heard in planning mine closure is key to ensuring towns and regions benefit during and after mining.</p>
<p>After the Mount Isa mine closures were announced, the Queensland government <a href="https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/98946">pledged</a> up to A$20 million for an “economic structural adjustment package” to support affected workers. Glencore is expected to match that funding. </p>
<p>On a local level, the Mount Isa City Council has actively worked towards securing the city’s future. In 2019 the council <a href="https://www.mountisa.qld.gov.au/downloads/file/753/investment-prospectus-mount-isa-city-council">released a prospectus</a> aimed at attracting investment “to diversify the city’s economy to reduce the impact of this minerals boom-bust cycle”. </p>
<p>While funding is available and the council is committed to forward planning, what does structural adjustment really mean for the community? </p>
<p>Managing all of the intersecting issues requires the hand of a <a href="https://nexteconomy.com.au/work/transforming-queensland-the-case-for-a-transition-authority/">co-ordinating authority</a>. Yet if all planning is done at arm’s length, it will not be able to draw on the community’s deep insights about place. </p>
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<h2>A wider problem</h2>
<p>As the energy transition <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-is-long-and-time-is-short-but-australias-pace-towards-net-zero-is-quickening-214570">continues</a>, Australia can expect to see many more mines close. These include coal mines in the Hunter Valley and Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. </p>
<p>And as the transition accelerates, we might expect to see other mines open, as renewable energy industries seek the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-could-need-6-times-more-of-the-minerals-used-for-renewables-and-batteries-how-can-we-avoid-a-huge-increase-in-mining-impacts-206864">critical minerals</a> they need. This week, for example, the federal government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-25/anthony-albanese-washington-dc-critical-minerals-funding/103017910">announced</a> $2 billion in funding to support the critical minerals industry.</p>
<p>While all government support will be welcomed, it’s time to bring planning back down to the local level. Residents know their towns intimately. They should be involved in actively shaping their towns’ futures. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-could-need-6-times-more-of-the-minerals-used-for-renewables-and-batteries-how-can-we-avoid-a-huge-increase-in-mining-impacts-206864">We could need 6 times more of the minerals used for renewables and batteries. How can we avoid a huge increase in mining impacts?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216346/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For towns built on mining, mine closures have huge impacts. Because mines inevitably close, communities should be involved from the start in planning for that time.Kimberley Crofts, Doctoral Student in Sustainable Transitions, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyLiam Phelan, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154472023-10-22T19:01:15Z2023-10-22T19:01:15ZCleaning up Australia’s 80,000 disused mines is a huge job – but the payoffs can outweigh the costs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554904/original/file-20231019-18-fiqpkt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=878%2C0%2C2619%2C1756&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-19/glencore-copper-mine-mount-isa-closes/102994426">Newly announced closures</a> of Glencore’s copper and zinc mines in Mt Isa will add to a huge number of former mines in Australia. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/min10090745">A 2020 study</a> by Monash University’s <a href="https://www.monash.edu/engineering/resources-trinity">Resources Trinity Group</a> found more than 80,000 inactive mine sites across the country. </p>
<p>Globally, a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00805-6">2023 study</a> estimates the mining footprint at around 66,000 square kilometres. Abandoned mines account for much of this area. </p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.mining.com/web/innovative-ways-to-repurpose-old-mines/">estimated</a> the US has about 500,000 abandoned mines and Canada at least 10,000. The UK and China have at least 1,500 and 12,000 old coalmines, respectively. </p>
<p>Abandoned mines can pose extreme <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2022/07/australias-abandoned-mines-rehabilitated/">environmental, health and safety risks</a>. Unreclaimed coalmines, for example, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mohan-yellishetty-9261512b_coalmines-ghgs-greenhousegases-activity-7118122785687691264-GjCy?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop">continue to emit greenhouse gases</a>.</p>
<p>Land is a scarce resource. Restoration enables sustainable and dynamic use of former mining land. It opens up golden opportunities – environmental, social and economic. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing sites of current and former mines across Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553863/original/file-20231015-15-cxxzcl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=714&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Current and former mining sites across Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Created by authors</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/afterlife-of-the-mine-lessons-in-how-towns-remake-challenging-sites-106073">Afterlife of the mine: lessons in how towns remake challenging sites</a>
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<h2>Environmental benefits</h2>
<p><strong>Carbon farming</strong> </p>
<p>Mine leases generally lock up vast land areas. This land presents a commercially viable, yet neglected, opportunity for carbon farming. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mohan-yellishetty-9261512b_criticalminerals-geothermalenergy-climatechange-activity-7000310180076806144-RDVE">replanting abandoned leases</a> could earn carbon credits under the Australian government’s <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/policy/policy/carbon-farming-initiative">Carbon Farming Initiative</a>. It can help “<a href="https://www.climateworkscentre.org/news/how-australia-can-reduce-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-hard-to-abate-sectors/">hard to abate</a>” industries such as <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/carbon-offsets-to-stay-in-miners-decarbonization-toolkit-despite-fortescue-move-77676056">mining</a> move towards net zero emissions. </p>
<p><strong>Sustainable and renewable energy</strong></p>
<p>Abandoned mines can also be used to produce and store renewable energy. Examples range from providing sites for solar farms to <a href="https://greengravity.com/">Green Gravity’s energy storage technology</a>. </p>
<p>Green Gravity uses a system of weights in a mine shaft to store energy from renewable sources. This energy is used to raise the weights. The energy can later be released when the weights are lowered under the pull of gravity. </p>
<p>Another example is the former Kidston gold mine’s <a href="https://www.statedevelopment.qld.gov.au/coordinator-general/assessments-and-approvals/coordinated-projects/completed-projects/kidston-pumped-storage-hydro-project">pumped storage hydro project</a>. This system uses two water reservoirs in former open pits. Renewable energy is used to pump water into the higher reservoir. Releasing this water into the lower reservoir generates hydropower energy as needed.</p>
<p>For abandoned deeper mines, tapping into geothermal energy could even make it viable to resume mining.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rYeBQFw_sPA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The former Kidston gold mine in Queensland has a new life as a pumped hydro energy storage plant.</span></figcaption>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/batteries-of-gravity-and-water-we-found-1-500-new-pumped-hydro-sites-next-to-existing-reservoirs-194330">Batteries of gravity and water: we found 1,500 new pumped hydro sites next to existing reservoirs</a>
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<p><strong>Water security</strong> </p>
<p>Abandoned mines or quarry pits can <a href="https://www.quarrymagazine.com/2020/11/26/from-pit-to-pit-lakes-could-abandoned-sites-be-reborn/">store large amounts of drinking, harvested and recycled water</a>. This will help increase water security, especially when located near urban areas or industry corridors.</p>
<p><strong>Disaster prevention</strong> </p>
<p>Another option is renaturalisation. This depends heavily, though, on location and mine type. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.orangutanrepublik.org/weblog/2021/02/15/indonesia-push-mine-rehab-reforestation-after-deadly-floods/">Indonesia has plans</a> to restore forest on former mine sites to help reduce floods. These reforested areas will help retain floodwaters.</p>
<p><strong>Biodiversity restoration</strong> </p>
<p>Nature-based approaches to mine rehabilitation include reforestation and phytoremediation, which uses plants to clean up contaminated environments. These approaches tackle mines’ legacy of pollution and add ecological value. </p>
<p>Restored land allows for native species to be reintroduced. It can also provide bridges between patches of habitat to enhance biodiversity. In Victoria, this has been done with a former quarry at <a href="https://earthresources.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/700565/DJPR-Vic-Gov-Quarry-Compendium-updated-web-version-0113102021.pdf">Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne</a>.</p>
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<img alt="panoramic view of Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/554902/original/file-20231019-23-983wxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Regreening a former sand mine at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne has boosted biodiversity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Greg Brave/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Social benefits</h2>
<p><strong>Improving urban liveability</strong></p>
<p>Renaturalised mines can be valuable communal and green spaces. Particularly when done in urban areas, it can provide residents with better air quality, microclimates and quality of life as these sites support recreational and cultural activities. <a href="https://earthresources.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/700565/DJPR-Vic-Gov-Quarry-Compendium-updated-web-version-0113102021.pdf">All Nations Park</a> is another example of a quarry restoration just seven kilometres from the Melbourne CBD.</p>
<p><strong>Education and tourism opportunities</strong> </p>
<p>Restored mining land opens up <a href="https://www.theprojects-quarry.com/">educational, architectural</a> and <a href="https://www.edenproject.com/new-edens/eden-project-anglesea-australia">tourism</a> opportunities. These range from hotels such as the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-quarry-hotel-shanghai/index.html">InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland</a> – most of it is underground – to eco-tourism and education centres, such as <a href="https://www.edenproject.com/">the Eden Project</a> in the UK. </p>
<h2>Economic benefits</h2>
<p><strong>Critical minerals</strong></p>
<p>Critical minerals are vital for batteries, electric vehicles and electrification needs. These minerals can be <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-rich-deposits-of-critical-minerals-for-green-technology-but-we-are-not-making-the-most-of-them-yet-182331">extracted from inactive mines and tailings storages</a>. </p>
<p>Mine waste processing could <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-16/hellyer-mine-starts-processing-tailings/9998764">contribute billions of dollars</a> a year to the economy and support regional jobs.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-rich-deposits-of-critical-minerals-for-green-technology-but-we-are-not-making-the-most-of-them-yet-182331">Australia has rich deposits of critical minerals for green technology. But we are not making the most of them ... yet</a>
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<p><strong>Job creation</strong> </p>
<p>Several large regions in Australia, including the Pilbara and Bowen Basins, face similar rehabilitation challenges. But each company is responsible for its own mine closure and rehabilitation. Current mining business models are not well suited for rehabilitation. </p>
<p>However, the scale of the rehabilitation work required in a major mining region would support an entire regional industry. It could provide many local jobs after mines close.</p>
<p>There are synergies between the many uses of restored mine sites. For example, Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne not only restores biodiversity, but has also created an attractive space for people to gather, along with jobs and education opportunities. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1371300706662051846"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-restore-the-land-as-coal-mines-close-heres-a-community-blueprint-to-sustain-the-hunter-valley-198792">'We need to restore the land': as coal mines close, here's a community blueprint to sustain the Hunter Valley</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>So what are the obstacles?</h2>
<p>A mine’s rehabilitation costs may total hundreds of millions of dollars. These costs are often many times greater than what governments hold in rehabilitation bonds, which operators must provide as financial security before mining begins. Nevertheless, the financial and environmental <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2011-sglp-overview/costs-of-inaction">consequences of inaction dwarf such costs</a>.</p>
<p>Globally, the costs of mine rehabilitation and closure liabilities run into billions of dollars. However, investments in <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/finally-green-infrastructure-spending-in-an-amount-that-starts-with-a-t">green infrastructure have reached trillions of dollars</a>. Some of these funds could be directed into rehabilitation and clean-up efforts, with the benefits of:</p>
<ul>
<li>providing capital to “kick off” and refine the collaborative work needed to deliver multiple benefits – as well as mining companies, this work involves many other organisations and individuals</li>
<li>creating clear financial accountability for rehabilitation</li>
<li>generating business opportunities and sites for testing new sustainability practices and developing “gold standards” for restoring and repurposing mine sites.</li>
</ul>
<p>A co-operative investment approach enables all partners to understand their shared responsibilities before any long-term expenses affect them individually. </p>
<p>Strong governance, initial funding and collaborative development are needed to achieve environmental, social and economic outcomes that add value to mine rehabilitation.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgements: David Whittle, Alec Miller, Tim T. Werner and a number of Monash University staff and students over the years who have contributed to the research base.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohan Yellishetty receives funding from the Australian Research Council, AGL Loy Yang, Boral Limited, CSIRO, KIGAM, Geoscience Australia, and the Defence Science Institute. He is Co-Convener of the National Industry Working Group (Critical Minerals), Australia-India Chamber of Commerce.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Marcus Bach does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Newly announced closures of Glencore’s copper and zinc mines in Mt Isa will add to a huge number of former mines in Australia. A 2020 study by Monash University’s Resources Trinity Group found more than…Mohan Yellishetty, Co-Founder, Critical Minerals Consortium, and Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash UniversityPeter Marcus Bach, Senior Research Scientist, Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, and Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2123162023-10-12T17:11:41Z2023-10-12T17:11:41ZSenghenydd colliery disaster: how Britain’s worst mining tragedy revealed the true price of coal<p>Miners working at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, south Wales, were in the middle of their morning shifts 2000ft below the ground when a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18610076">massive explosion</a> ripped through the deep pit at 8.10am. A spark from an electric bell had ignited a deadly mix of methane gas and coal dust, known to miners as “firedamp”. </p>
<p>The blast on October 14 1913 killed 439 men and boys, with another dying during rescue operations. It was, and remains, the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/census/pandp/places/seng.htm">worst</a> coal mining disaster in British history and also the sixth worst in the world. </p>
<p>But disasters of this dreadful nature occurred with dismal regularity in the south Wales coalfield when the industry was at its height. South Wales was the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4582420/">most dangerous</a> coalfield in what was statistically the most dangerous industry in the UK at that time. </p>
<p>Only a few miles away from Senghenydd, 290 miners had died in an explosion at the <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/albion-colliery-mining-disaster-cilfynydd-16135285">Albion Colliery</a> in Cilfynydd in 1894. The Universal Colliery had itself suffered an earlier explosion, in <a href="https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/glamorganshire/universal-colliery-explosion-senghenydd-1901/">1901</a>, which killed 81 miners. </p>
<p>Everyone in Senghenydd lost family or friends in the 1913 disaster. It left 542 children fatherless and made widows of more than 200 women. Ninety boys and young men aged 20 or less were killed, with the youngest victims being just 14 years old. One chapel in the village reportedly lost 60% of its male members. </p>
<p>Although Senghenydd bore the brunt of the tragedy, its deadly effects were also felt further afield. A sizeable minority of the miners who were killed lived in the neighbouring village of Abertridwr and other nearby villages, while ten lived as comparatively far away as Cardiff. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/c/uk1911census">1911 Census</a> shows a large number of families and individuals from every part of Wales living or lodging in Senghenydd. It also shows that many of those who were killed in the disaster had come to the village from England and some from Ireland.</p>
<h2>Justice?</h2>
<p>From the perspective of mining families, the official investigations into the disaster added insult to injury. The coroner’s inquest into the disaster returned a verdict of <a href="https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/accidents-disasters/glamorganshire/universal-colliery-explosion-senghenydd-1913/">accidental death</a>. </p>
<p>Following the inquest, the colliery’s manager was prosecuted for 17 breaches of the Coal Mines Act, while the company was charged with four breaches. But most of those charges ended up being dropped. </p>
<p>The manager was eventually fined a total of £24 and the company was fined £10 with £5 and 5 shillings costs. As the Merthyr Pioneer newspaper <a href="https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4000499/4000502/27/senghenydd%20disaster%201914">reported</a>: “Miners’ lives at 1s 1¼d each” –- the equivalent of 5.5p per dead miner in today’s money.</p>
<p>The Universal Colliery went back to work at the end of November 1913. It eventually closed in 1928 and the derelict site was demolished in 1963.</p>
<p>In 2013, on the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-24506122">100th anniversary</a> of the disaster, the <a href="https://www.visitcaerphilly.com/en/senghenydd-national-mining-memorial-garden/">Welsh National Mining Memorial</a> was unveiled on the old colliery site, to commemorate miners killed in the Senghenydd disasters and also to remember the victims of the other 150 mining disasters in Wales. </p>
<p>Hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects and to view the unveiling of the memorial. The scale of the public turnout to the commemoration showed the extent to which the people of the south Wales valleys are still aware of the terrible toll of death and injury that the industry inflicted upon its workforce.</p>
<p>The memorial statue itself depicts a rescue worker helping an injured miner. Surrounding the statute is a walled garden, with tiles inscribed with the details of those killed in the two Senghenydd disasters as well as a “path of memory”, which marks other colliery tragedies in Wales.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yy72FYqG5Is?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Channel 4 news report from the 100 year commemoration.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the disaster was <a href="https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2013/10/11/the-mining-disaster-at-the-universal-colliery-in-senghenydd-south-wales-14-october-1913/">widely reported</a> at the time, it faded from memory for most people and is not well known beyond Wales by now. </p>
<p>It is possible that this was due to it being eclipsed by the outbreak of the first world war less than a year later. Or perhaps it was because there were just so many colliery disasters that memory of it merged into a broader, vaguer memory of death and danger in the coalfields. </p>
<h2>Remembering</h2>
<p>Although the collieries are all long gone now, mining disasters continue to retain a contemporary resonance in the folk memory of the south Wales coalfield region. </p>
<p>This was seen in <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/coal-spoil-tips-landslide-safe-17826953">popular responses</a> to a coal tip landslide in Tylorstown in 2020, which is just 11km away from Senghenydd. It was reflective of the visceral horror at the <a href="https://aberfan.walesonline.co.uk">Aberfan disaster</a> of October 1966, in which 116 children and 28 adults were killed when a coal tip slid downhill onto a primary school. </p>
<p>Such latter-day commemoration, as often as not via social media nowadays, is perpetuated by people who in many cases have no personal memory of these disasters –- yet nevertheless, we remember. The people of the valleys have never forgotten that coal was always stained with blood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Curtis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Four hundred and forty men and boys were killed in the Senghenydd colliery disaster, with the youngest victims aged just 14 years old.Ben Curtis, Historian, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980952023-09-21T10:18:35Z2023-09-21T10:18:35ZGerman police have long collaborated with energy giant RWE to enforce ecological catastrophe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505893/original/file-20230123-10231-u5ynf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C144%2C2048%2C1143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eviction aftermath in Lutzerath, early 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/luetzibleibt/52640346606/">Lützi Lebt / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In early 2023, the German village of Lützerath was the site of violent clashes between thousands of protesters and police who wanted to clear the village so it could be swallowed up by Garzweiler II, a huge opencast coal mine. In small groups, police forces charged into groups of protesters, beating people, kicking and pushing them to the ground. Police dogs attacked protesters, just metres away from the steep edge of the Garweiler II opencast coal mine. Dozens of people were injured.</p>
<p>The protests made world headlines when Greta Thunberg joined in and was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-police-detain-greta-thunberg-german-coal-village-protests-2023-01-17/">detained by police</a>. </p>
<p>The police would eventually drive the protesters out of the village, using batons, pepper spray and dogs (the local police point out these were “legally permitted means of physical violence” and “were only used to avert dangers to public safety and order”). The bulldozers then moved in. Today, as <a href="https://september.media/en/articles/luetzerath-fight-for-democracy">one activist put it</a>, “the place where Lützerath used to be looks just like the rest of the post-mining wasteland around it”.</p>
<p>Lützerath was particularly high-profile, but other villages in the region have suffered the same fate. In my <a href="https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Normalising_corporate_counterinsurgency_engineering_consent_managing_resistance_and_greening_destruction_around_the_Hambach_coal_mine_and_beyond/23451161">academic research</a> I have tracked how the regional police have long collaborated with energy firm RWE to ensure the expansion of coal mines isn’t held up by local objections. </p>
<p>Protests in Lützerath began after almost all of its residents were forced to sell and leave a few years ago. Expropriation of land for mining is a touchpoint in Germany as the modern Federal Mining Act that enables it <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629817300835">came out of old Nazi legislation</a> which allowed the eviction of communities for coal excavation in Germany’s quest to strengthen its wartime capabilities. </p>
<p>In close allyship with surrounding communities and the last remaining farmer, Eckardt Heukamp, activists built barricades, tree houses, tunnels, and tripods, and moved into empty homes to stop the destruction of the village and <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2021/10/12/people-are-preparing-for-a-final-showdown-to-stop-coal-extraction-in-the-german-rhineland/">prepare for a final confrontation</a> with police and the mine’s operator, energy giant RWE. (In a statement provided to The Conversation, the local police said it is obliged to prosecute “anyone who stays [in the mining area] against the will of the owner”).</p>
<p>Heukamp lost his court case against RWE in 2022 and had to leave and see his family farm destroyed. This is the second time he was dispossessed for coal.</p>
<p>The demonstrations in early 2023 were protesting the eviction of those activists to allow RWE to extract and burn a thick layer of lignite coal underneath the village. Sometimes known as brown coal, lignite is the dirtiest form of coal, and a further <a href="https://www.bund-nrw.de/meldungen/detail/news/kohle-unter-luetzerath-wird-nicht-benoetigt/">280 million tonnes</a> of it will be extracted from Garzweiler mine alone. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protesters by large hole with industrial machinery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505894/original/file-20230123-5967-jn9l65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Garzweiler II is an opencast, or open-pit, coal mine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/luetzibleibt/52628066855/">Lützi Lebt/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.diw.de/de/diw_01.c.839636.de/publikationen/diw_aktuell/2022_0084/stromversorgung_auch_ohne_russische_energielieferungen_und_t___z_atomausstiegs_sicher_____kohleausstieg_2030_bleibt_machbar.html">Studies show</a> that this coal is not necessary for <a href="https://www.bund-nrw.de/fileadmin/nrw/dokumente/braunkohle/221128_EBC_Aurora_Kohleausstiegspfad_und_Emissionen_as_sent.pdf">Germany’s energy supply</a>. But it is part of a controversial deal between RWE and the Green-Conservative coalition government which brings forward the end date of lignite coal mining in Germany from 2038 to 2030, “saving” five similar villages, but sacrificing Lützerath. But by reconnecting two generating units and increasing annual extraction, the amount of total coal burnt is hardly reduced at all.</p>
<h2>A history of resistance</h2>
<p>The fight to protect Lützerath was part of a decades-long history of direct actions and combative resistance in the Rhineland. For instance the nearby <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-battle-of-hambacher-forest/">Hambacher Forest</a> occupation, set up in 2012, protected ancient woodland from the expansion of another RWE coal mine. The occupation became a symbol for resistance – “love, live, resist” – inspiring <a href="https://newint.org/features/2020/11/19/enforcing-ecological-catastrophe-all-costs">people across Germany</a> and beyond. </p>
<p>For ten years, evictions were followed by reoccupations, as people risked their lives to stop ecological destruction. The last eviction, in <a href="https://www.redpepper.org.uk/the-battle-of-hambacher-forest/">2018</a>, took over four weeks until stopped by the courts, and was later declared illegal. A young film maker, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/stillness-and-shock-in-hambach-forest-after-journalist-dies/a-45579629">Steffen Meyn</a>, died when he fell around 20 meters from a tree bridge during the eviction.</p>
<p>While the eviction and destruction of the forest were eventually stopped, only a small percentage of the original woodland remains. Heat from the nearby mine means the forest is reported to be <a href="https://www.greenpeace.de/klimaschutz/klimakrise/hambi-braucht-schutzzone">slowly drying out</a>.</p>
<p>RWE has often been able to count on the support of police and politicians to combat resistance. In 2015, it emerged that the then-district administrator responsible for policing anti-coal protest was himself a <a href="https://taz.de/Nach-der-Besetzung-in-Garzweiler/!5224546/">member of RWE Power’s supervisory board</a>, while Greenpeace research found that <a href="https://epub.sub.uni-hamburg.de/epub/volltexte/2021/126759/pdf/20130409_schwarzbuch_kohle.pdf/">at least 17 politicians</a> from all political parties – from mayors to parliamentarians – have had side jobs at the company. (In response, the local police said they are “committed to political neutrality [and] are not guided by private or economic interests. We act exclusively on a legal basis.”)</p>
<p>For decades, RWE has fostered its image as a “responsible neighbour”, thanks to the firm’s PR and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2514848620924597">corporate social responsibility (CSR) work</a> and the support of regional media and government. Police have long collaborated, <a href="https://twitter.com/DanniPilger/status/1614990114178105344">retweeting RWE press messages</a>, using its vehicles to transport protesters, and effectively outsourcing the most difficult (tunnel) eviction work to <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article243218445/Luetzerath-Raeumung-laut-Polizei-bis-auf-Tunnel-abgeschlossen.html">RWE’s own private fire brigade</a> by declaring it a “rescue”. (The police say this did happen but deny it was an example of collaboration. “Rather”, a spokesperson told The Conversation, “it is a matter of clear, legally-assigned responsibilities”). </p>
<p>Revolving door relationships lubricate the political manoeuvring to defend coal at all costs. In late 2022, for instance, a close aide of Germany’s minister for foreign affairs and former leader of the Green Party left to <a href="https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/ruhrgebiet/ehemaliger-baerbock-mitarbeiter-lobbyist-rwe-100.html">become RWE’s chief lobbyist</a>. (The Conversation contacted RWE for comment on whether this was an example of a “revolving door” situation but received no response). </p>
<p>For decades, RWE has paid communities in shares, not cash, which means that many become financially dependent on the company. Nearly a quarter of RWE’s shares are <a href="https://www.rwe.com/-/media/RWE/documents/05-investor-relations/finanzkalendar-und-veroeffentlichungen/hv2022/countermotions-german-association-of-critical-shareholders.pdf">owned by communities, cities and towns</a>. Local authorities are thus shareholders, licensers, clients, constituencies, employees and tax collectors at the same time.</p>
<h2>Blurry boundaries between corporation and state</h2>
<p>The boundaries between RWE and the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) are so blurry the state is sometimes termed “NRWE”. When I studied RWE’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629817300835?via=ihub">counterinsurgency strategies in the region</a> I found the firm’s interests were represented everywhere, from church choirs and town councils, to school boards and universities. </p>
<p>RWE has financed police barbecues and fire trucks, I was told, sponsored football clubs and festivals, concerts and exhibitions, viewing platforms and historic castles, regularly organises lectures and restoration conferences. It puts up baking carts and public bookshelves, pays for school buildings, organises volunteering activities and tours through the mine. Employees go into schools and hand out lunch boxes to first graders. They create teaching materials, role-playing games, and girls’ days in their training centres, offer school trips into power stations, zoo schools, and environmental education initiatives. (RWE did not respond to a question on whether it has bought support among local communities).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="House, tree and digger" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506103/original/file-20230124-366-ipfzvb.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trees – and treehouses – are removed to expand the coal mine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Barbara Schnell</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Back in the 1980s, a scientific report highlighted the ecological destruction caused by mining in the region – but publication was <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/politik/das-groesste-loch-a-8a3b00b7-0002-0001-0000-000014356858?context=issue">blocked by the state government</a>. More recently, RWE has been able to influence legislation – <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/garzweiler-ii-rwe-gutachten-dienten-als-grundlage-fuer-gesetz-a-125e9fbb-85f9-404a-b96c-51c7b33c750c">Der Spiegel</a> reported in 2022 that parts of Germany’s coal phase-out laws, which ensured the Garzweiler mine would stay open, were based on studies paid for by the company. RWE has previously confirmed it funded the studies but said everyone had “<a href="https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/garzweiler-ii-rwe-gutachten-dienten-als-grundlage-fuer-gesetz-a-125e9fbb-85f9-404a-b96c-51c7b33c750c">free access to the documents</a>”.</p>
<p>RWE has also paid for research on how to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629817300835?via=ihub#bib101">understand resistance</a> to its own actions. All of these are classic <a href="https://coaltransitions.org/publications/normalising-corporate-counterinsurgency/">counterinsurgency strategies</a> to repress, pacify and co-opt dissent, smoothed over by a well-oiled propaganda machine.</p>
<p>The eviction of Lützerath is over. But criminalisation and policing continue in the coal mining <a href="https://www.amnesty.de/informieren/positionspapiere/deutschland-uebersicht-ueber-die-aenderungen-der-polizeigesetze-den">Rhineland</a>. As police continue to protect fossil capital, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-99646-8">enforcing ecological destruction</a>, and being perceived to serve not just RWE but the many individuals and institutions that benefit financially from coal mine expansion, the fight goes on.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Conversation approached RWE for comment but did not receive a response.</em></p>
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<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Brock has in the past received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Deutsche Studienstiftung.</span></em></p>Clashes at a huge coal mine were the latest episode in a long struggle.Andrea Brock, Lecturer in International Relations, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103842023-08-21T02:59:08Z2023-08-21T02:59:08ZWhat harm could one coal mine do? Plenty – 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs of heat for starters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/543591/original/file-20230821-101875-71dfbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=37%2C18%2C6193%2C4128&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, the Australian government <a href="https://theconversation.com/tanya-plibersek-killed-off-clive-palmers-coal-mine-its-an-australian-first-but-it-may-never-happen-again-199512">rejected</a> Clive Palmer’s coal mine proposal – but <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/initiative/coal-mine-tracker/">approved</a> three others. Over 100 more <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/new-fossil-fuel-projects-in-australia-2023/">fossil fuel projects</a> are in the decision pipeline. </p>
<p>Why are we still approving coal projects when climate impacts are intensifying? There is, as the International Energy Agency has pointed out, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-15/safeguard-mechanism-australian-government-drive-down-emissions/101844050">no place</a> for new fossil fuels if we have a chance of holding global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Our existing fossil fuel infrastructure <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/resources/spm-headline-statements">is enough</a> to blow our remaining carbon budget. </p>
<p>Unusually, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and her department were required to <a href="https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/all-referrals/project-referral-summary/?id=545d2280-ebcb-ea11-97dc-00505684324c">account for climate impacts</a> in a recent decision.</p>
<p>They decided the climate effects did not have “relevant impact”. One of the key <a href="https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/all-referrals/project-referral-summary/project-decision/?id=e16bf985-c4ef-ed11-8849-00224818a6aa">reasons</a> they gave for this was that the emissions from burning the coal from a single mine will, they claim, have a “very small” impact on warming – just 0.00024°C over the lifetime of the mine.</p>
<p>As a physicist, this argument does not stack up. What seems like a minuscule amount of warming to a politician is, to scientists, very concerning. It’s no wonder environmental organisations are filing lawsuits to try to stop these mines. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="coal power" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542723/original/file-20230815-15-pgt8pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It might not sound like a lot of extra warming – but on a planetary scale, it’s huge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>One new mine is the same as millions of nuclear bombs of heat</h2>
<p>Right now, Plibersek and her department are weighing up <a href="https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/all-referrals/project-referral-summary/?id=545d2280-ebcb-ea11-97dc-00505684324c">final approval</a> for the expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley. If approved, it would let the mine’s owners MACH Energy Australia double its extraction rate to 21 million tonnes of coal per year. </p>
<p>So far, the project has breezed through environmental approvals. But how can Australia’s environment minister reason that new coal mines won’t do too much damage to the climate? </p>
<p><a href="https://epbcpublicportal.awe.gov.au/all-referrals/project-referral-summary/project-decision/?id=e16bf985-c4ef-ed11-8849-00224818a6aa">Plibersek gives</a> two main arguments. One is the assumption that if we don’t dig up fossil fuels, someone else will. Known as “the drug dealer’s defence”, this rationale has been rejected in a growing number of fossil fuel court cases, for example in <a href="http://envlaw.com.au/gloucester-resources-case/">in NSW</a>, <a href="https://www.gtlaw.com.au/knowledge/mining-leases-rejected-due-human-rights-emissions-impacts-waratah-coal-v-youth-verdict">Queensland</a> and the <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/19/16332952/court-ruling-coal-climate-change">United States</a>.</p>
<p>The second – the “very small” impact on warming – is worth a closer look.</p>
<p>By the mining company’s calculation, the expanded project will add 535 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) to our atmosphere over the lifetime of the mine. That’s about a year’s worth of Australia’s entire domestic emissions.</p>
<p>The department took this CO₂e figure and estimated how much this would change Earth’s global temperature. That’s where they got the “very small” figure of 0.00024°C.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/earths-energy-budget-is-not-in-balance-should-we-be-concerned-204729">Earth's energy budget is not in balance. Should we be concerned?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>To a politician, this small number may seem insignificant. But to a physicist it is truly remarkable. What it actually means is we are able to alter an entire planet’s temperature with this single mine extension.</p>
<p>Changing a planet’s temperature takes an <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-trillion-tonnes-of-greenhouse-gases-25-billion-nukes-of-heat-are-we-pushing-earth-out-of-the-goldilocks-zone-202619">enormous amount</a> of energy. </p>
<p>If it weren’t for the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/19/what-is-the-greenhouse-effect/">greenhouse effect</a>, Earth would be too cold for life. The problem is humans have been steadily increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, causing Earth to retain more and more of the Sun’s vast energy, heating the planet to dangerous levels.</p>
<p>Burning fossil fuels is responsible for most of this. </p>
<p>Our planet is now warming at a <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature">rate</a> of 0.018°C per year. </p>
<p>If we compare that to the department’s figure of 0.00024°C, we see the total warming effect from the Mount Pleasant mine would be about 1.3% of one year’s global warming.</p>
<p>Doesn’t sound like much? Consider this. Human activity is causing about 7.8 zettajoules of extra heat to be <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/15/1675/2023/">added</a> to the Earth’s climate system every year. So, 1.3% of a year’s global warming gives roughly 0.1 zettajoules worth of extra heat through burning the output of an expanded Mount Pleasant coal mine. </p>
<p>Now, 0.1 zettajoules is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules of energy. This number is so large we can’t relate to it. We can think of it instead as around 1.7 million Hiroshima bombs worth of extra heat. From one single mine extension.</p>
<p>So, it is not a “very small” amount of energy. And that’s just one mine. If the 25 proposed new coal mines and three recently approved projects go ahead, they would add <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/initiative/coal-mine-tracker/">12,600 million tonnes</a> of CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere. That, in turn, would trap heat equivalent to roughly 43 million Hiroshima bombs. And this doesn’t even count the planned <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-116-new-coal-oil-and-gas-projects-equate-to-215-new-coal-power-stations-202135">gas and oil</a> projects, or projects approved at the <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/transparency-net-zero-new-fossil-fuel-approvals-by-environment-minister-tanya-plibersek-on-the-up/">state level</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-trillion-tonnes-of-greenhouse-gases-25-billion-nukes-of-heat-are-we-pushing-earth-out-of-the-goldilocks-zone-202619">Two trillion tonnes of greenhouse gases, 25 billion nukes of heat: are we pushing Earth out of the Goldilocks zone?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We can’t claim we don’t know</h2>
<p>New fossil fuel project approvals at a time when global heating is accelerating seem like a remarkable disconnect. </p>
<p>It’s for this reason we’re seeing a spike in climate lawsuits. The Environment Council of Central Queensland is taking Plibersek to court, aided by Environmental Justice Australia. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1uH_NW4mhAc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This NASA visualisation shows carbon dioxide being added to Earth’s atmosphere over the course of the year 2021, split into four major contributors: fossil fuels in orange, burning biomass in red, land ecosystems in green, and the ocean in blue. The dots on the surface also show how atmospheric carbon dioxide is also being absorbed by land ecosystems in green and the ocean in blue.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Central to their case will be <a href="https://livingwonders.org.au/">the claim</a> the minister acted unlawfully when she “refused to accept the climate harm these projects are likely to cause, as outlined in thousands of scientific reports, including from the IPCC and her own department.” </p>
<p>The lawsuit has stopped the Mount Pleasant extension and Whitehaven’s Narrabri mine from proceeding further until the case <a href="https://envirojustice.org.au/blog/2023/06/23/federal-court-date-set-for-landmark-climate-litigation">has been heard</a>. </p>
<p>We can’t predict the outcome of the case – it could go either way. </p>
<p>But we can predict the outcome of new fossil fuel projects. Dig up coal, burn it, heat the planet. We can’t argue our way out of the laws of physics. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tanya-plibersek-killed-off-clive-palmers-coal-mine-its-an-australian-first-but-it-may-never-happen-again-199512">Tanya Plibersek killed off Clive Palmer's coal mine. It's an Australian first – but it may never happen again</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Campbell receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with Australian Parents for Climate Action (AP4CA). </span></em></p>Australia is approving coal mine expansions because of their “very small” impact on global heating. It doesn’t stack up.Simon Campbell, Senior research fellow and lecturer, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2021352023-03-21T04:05:13Z2023-03-21T04:05:13ZAustralia’s 116 new coal, oil and gas projects equate to 215 new coal power stations<p>Australia has 116 <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/resources-and-energy-major-projects-2022">new coal, oil and gas projects</a> in the pipeline. If they all proceed as planned, an extra 1.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases would be released into the atmosphere <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/116-new-fossil-fuel-projects-4-8b-tonnes-of-pollution-24x-safeguard-cuts/">annually by 2030</a>. </p>
<p>To put that in perspective, Australia’s total domestic greenhouse gas emissions in 2021–22 were <a href="https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-quarterly-update-june-2022">490 million tonnes</a>. So annual emissions from these new projects would be the almost three times larger than the nation’s 2021-22 emissions. That’s the equivalent of starting up 215 new coal power stations, based on the average emissions of Australia’s current existing coal power stations.</p>
<p>The reason we can get away with this is the current global framework for emissions accounting only considers emissions generated onshore. And almost all coal, oil and gas from these new projects would be exported. But as we share the atmosphere with the rest of the people on the planet, the consequences will come back to bite us. </p>
<p>This week the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/">Synthesis Report</a> from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) described how fossil fuels are wreaking havoc on the planet. The science is clear: the IPCC says fossil fuel use is overwhelmingly driving global warming. </p>
<p>“The sooner emissions are reduced this decade, the greater our chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C. Projected CO₂ emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure (power plants, mines, pipelines) without additional abatement exceed the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C,” the IPCC says, let alone new coal, oil and gas projects. </p>
<p>In the words of <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-03-20/secretary-generals-video-message-for-press-conference-launch-the-synthesis-report-of-the-intergovernmental-panel-climate-change">UN Secretary General António Guterres</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every country must be part of the solution. Demanding others move first only ensures humanity comes last.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Guterres added that “the Acceleration Agenda calls for a number of other actions”, specifically:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>No new coal and the phasing out of coal by 2030 in OECD countries and 2040 in
all other countries</p></li>
<li><p>Ending all international public and private funding of coal</p></li>
<li><p>Ensuring net zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and
2040 for the rest of the world</p></li>
<li><p>Ceasing all licensing or funding of new oil and gas – consistent with the findings of the International Energy Agency</p></li>
<li><p>Stopping any expansion of existing oil and gas reserves</p></li>
<li><p>Shifting subsidies from fossil fuels to a just energy transition</p></li>
<li><p>Establishing a global phase down of existing oil and gas production compatible
with the 2050 global net zero target. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T9CeECpxtx8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Introducing the latest IPCC climate report.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-can-be-done-it-must-be-done-ipcc-delivers-definitive-report-on-climate-change-and-where-to-now-201763">'It can be done. It must be done': IPCC delivers definitive report on climate change, and where to now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hidden in plain sight</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/116-new-fossil-fuel-projects-4-8b-tonnes-of-pollution-24x-safeguard-cuts/">new research</a>, released today by the Australia Institute, reveals the pollution from Australia’s 116 new fossil fuel projects. These are listed among the federal government’s <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/resources-and-energy-major-projects-2022">major projects</a>. </p>
<p>Government analysts estimate each project’s start date and annual production figures. If they are correct, by 2030 the projects would produce a total of 1,466 million tonnes of coal and 15,400 petajoules of gas and oil.</p>
<p><iframe id="n6deR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/n6deR/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Then it’s fairly straightforward to calculate emissions. We simply multiplied these enormous new fossil fuel volumes by their “emissions factors”. When one tonne of coal is burned it releases approximately 2.65 tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent (CO₂-e) into the atmosphere, and burning one terajoule (0.001 petejoules) of natural gas results in 51.5 tonnes CO₂-e. </p>
<p>Combined with the 164 million tonnes of emissions that the mining of these fuels would cause, the result is a planet-warming, but spine-chilling, total of 4.8 billion tonnes by 2030. </p>
<p>This amount is 24 times greater than the ambition of the federal government’s key emissions reduction policy, the so-called Safeguard Mechanism. That aims to reduce emissions by <a href="https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/next-steps-safeguard-australian-industry-and-regions-net-zero-global-economy">205 million tonnes</a> over the same period. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Column graph comparing the tall stack of emissions from new fossil fuel projects to the small amount of emissions covered by the Safeguard Mechanism." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516578/original/file-20230321-24-mt36ac.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Rather than embrace the task of decarbonising the Australian economy, the Albanese government has continued down the path laid out by the former Coalition government. It’s a path that relies more heavily on the use of carbon offsets than curtailing coal and gas. </p>
<p>Even though the rest of the world is committed to burning less fossil fuels, there are <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/116-new-fossil-fuel-projects-4-8b-tonnes-of-pollution-24x-safeguard-cuts/">more gas and coal mine project proposals</a> in Australia today than there were in 2021. </p>
<p>Note also that this list does not include several large, advanced projects actively supported by Australian governments, including Santos’s Barossa gas field, Shell’s Bowen Gas Project, Chevron’s Cleo Acme, and several vast new unconventional gas basins including the Beetaloo, Canning and Lake Eyre basins.</p>
<h2>3 reasons to change our ways</h2>
<p>Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen argues that Australians are not responsible for the emissions from our fossil fuel exports. That’s because the international accounting rules <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/ThePathtoClimateNeutrality-Measure-TheBasics_May26.pdf">distinguish between</a> the emissions that occur within our borders (known as scope 1 and 2 emissions) and those that occur when other countries burn the coal and gas we sell them (known as scope 3 emissions). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Extinction Rebellion protesters are seen pushing an animatronic burning Koala puppet called Blinky through the streets of the CBD in Brisbane, Wednesday, March 15, 2023" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516561/original/file-20230321-14-7j01sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No matter where in the world Australian fossil fuels are burned, the emissions will harm our nation’s wildlife (including endangered koalas), people and properties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/">DARREN ENGLAND/AAP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But if Bowen really wants to tackle climate change, there are three reasons both he and Australians should bear this responsibility:</p>
<p>First, there’s the moral argument. Australia didn’t ban whaling and asbestos mining because we wanted to stop Australians from eating whales or building hazardous homes. We stopped these activities because they were dangerous. Countries can and do shape the world they live in.</p>
<p>Second, even just the emissions in Australia from these 116 new fossil fuel projects (their methane leaks, fuel use and other relevant emissions in Australia) will pour 344 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere by 2030. That dwarfs the 205 million tonnes of emissions the entire Safeguard Mechanism is supposed to save over that same period.</p>
<p>And finally, leaving aside the risks of catastrophic climate change, which is admittedly a big ask, it is hard to overstate the risks to the Australian economy of continuing to focus our investment on the expansion of export industries that the rest of the world is committed to transitioning away from. If we aimed the $11 billion per year we spend on fossil fuel subsidies at decarbonising our economy, we would slash emissions in no time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516318/original/file-20230320-26-bejszf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IPCC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No new coal, oil and gas</h2>
<p>The Australian government continues to support unlimited growth in fossil fuel production and export, despite clear statements from the United Nations,
<a href="https://www.iea.org/news/pathway-to-critical-and-formidable-goal-of-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-is-narrow-but-brings-huge-benefits">International Energy Agency (IEA)</a> and IPCC that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with global temperature goals.</p>
<p>No matter where in the world Australian fossil fuels are burned, they will turn up the heat. We can’t escape the simple truth that humanity must stop burning fossil fuels. It’s the only path to a liveable future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Denniss is the Australia Institute’s chief economist. He has also worked as a strategy adviser to the Australian Greens when Senator Bob Brown was leader.</span></em></p>Australia continues to support unlimited growth in fossil fuel production and export, flying in the face of the latest IPCC report. Mapped: 67 new coal, and 49 gas/oil projects.Richard Denniss, Adjunct Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987922023-02-07T19:03:55Z2023-02-07T19:03:55Z‘We need to restore the land’: as coal mines close, here’s a community blueprint to sustain the Hunter Valley<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508229/original/file-20230206-13-f7u9ap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5464%2C3615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsws-biggest-coal-mine-to-close-in-2030-now-what-about-the-workers-185292">decline of the coal industry</a> means <a href="https://miningdigital.com/sustainability/repurposing-mines-in-hunter-valley-presents-3-7bn">17 mines</a> in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will close over the next two decades. More than 130,000 hectares of mining land — <a href="https://www.singletonargus.com.au/story/7705554/space-view-shows-hunter-mine-scars/">nearly two-thirds of the valley floor</a> between Broke and Muswellbrook — will become available for new uses. </p>
<p>Restoring and reusing this land could contribute <a href="https://www.hunterrenewal.org.au/transforming_mining_land_in_the_hunter_valley">billions</a> of dollars to the Hunter economy, create thousands of full-time jobs and make the region a world leader in industries such as renewable energy and <a href="https://theconversation.com/intensive-farming-is-eating-up-the-australian-continent-but-theres-another-way-130877">regenerative agriculture</a> that improves soil and water quality and increases biodiversity and resilience. But to unlock these future opportunities, we must first clean up the legacy of the past.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Report cover with photo of a large open cut coal mine in the foreground and mountains in the background. The title of the report sits over the blue sky and says 'Afte the coal rush, the clean up. A community blueprint to restore the Hunter'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508293/original/file-20230206-29-g1khbo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hunter community blueprint is out today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/Hunter Renewal</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last year community organisation Hunter Renewal asked people across the Hunter Valley about their priorities. They told us they want the Hunter to become a thriving natural environment, a more vibrant and attractive place to live with connected communities, and a diverse and resilient economy. </p>
<p>These community priorities, and their implications for land use planning, are outlined in a report published by Hunter Renewal today: <a href="https://www.hunterrenewal.org.au/restoration_blueprint">After the coal rush, the clean-up. A community blueprint to restore the Hunter</a>. This blueprint could be a model for other Australian communities planning their transition away from fossil fuels. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nsws-biggest-coal-mine-to-close-in-2030-now-what-about-the-workers-185292">NSW's biggest coal mine to close in 2030. Now what about the workers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How were priorities identified?</h2>
<p>We began by analysing more than 170 documents from government, academia and industry about post-mining land use, planning and related issues. From this, a first draft of principles and recommendations for action was created.</p>
<p>The draft was put to a panel of ecological, social and technical experts from the University of Newcastle. Wanaruah/Wonnorua Elders and other First Nations peoples also advised on this draft.</p>
<p>Hunter community members then reviewed and revised a second draft through a series of workshops, interviews and an online survey. They included land holders, students, business owners, mine rehabilitation experts, Indigenous knowledge holders and renewable energy workers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-local-solutions-to-replace-coal-jobs-and-ensure-a-just-transition-for-mining-communities-174883">3 local solutions to replace coal jobs and ensure a just transition for mining communities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Rehabilitation and restoration</h2>
<p>Hunter residents want mined lands to be restored to support biodiversity and clean industries such as regenerative farming, renewable energy, and other industries that regenerate rather than extract. </p>
<p>To ensure this restoration happens, stronger legal obligations would ensure mining companies cannot walk away from their obligations, leaving <a href="http://downloads.erinsights.com/reports/the_whole_truth_LR.pdf">voids</a> in the landscape that become a perpetual hazard to human and environmental health. As one resident said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Mining companies shouldn’t be allowed to have a free pass at everything and get as much funding via subsidies as they do from the government. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Planning and governance</h2>
<p>People said that for the Hunter landscape to be restored at the scale required, planning and policy mechanisms will have to be well co-ordinated. An independent and locally based Hunter Rehabilitation and Restoration Commission could do this. It could work alongside the already proposed <a href="https://www.hunterjobsalliance.org.au/get-on-with-jobs-petition">Hunter Valley Transition Authority</a>. </p>
<p>The community suggested increasing coal-mining royalties to pay for this co-ordinated work. Mining companies would then be the ones that foot the clean-up bill. </p>
<p>In NSW, the royalty rate for open-cut coal is just <a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/html/inforce/current/sl-2016-0498#sec.74">8.2% of the resale value</a>. That’s too low for what is required. As another resident said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We shouldn’t underestimate the size of the task and true cost and effort of rehabilitation of multiple large mines over decades. This is an opportunity to repurpose the land and the physical and social infrastructure. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-transition-from-coal-4-lessons-for-australia-from-around-the-world-115558">How to transition from coal: 4 lessons for Australia from around the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1069338018354360325"}"></div></p>
<h2>Community involvement</h2>
<p>Successful mine closure and relinquishment requires that affected communities and stakeholders are <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-05/lpsdp-mine-closure-handbook-english.pdf">meaningfully involved at every stage</a> of planning and implementation. Yet <a href="https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2021-08/status-mine-closure-readiness-en.pdf">true involvement is rare</a> </p>
<p>People in the Hunter want to see greater community involvement mandated to ensure new developments benefit their communities for the long term. As one Hunter resident said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The mines have privatised all the profits and socialised all the costs […] We want to be involved from the beginning as equals.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-want-to-be-part-of-that-movement-residents-embrace-renewable-energy-but-worry-how-their-towns-will-change-184743">'We want to be part of that movement': residents embrace renewable energy but worry how their towns will change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>First Nations</h2>
<p>In Australia all mines are on Indigenous land and <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/native-title-report-2006-chapter-3-australian-government-and-minerals-council-australia">over 60% of mines are near to Indigenous communities</a>. Yet Indigenous people are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app5.99">less likely to benefit economically</a> from mining operations than non-Indigenous people. </p>
<p>Hunter residents said this needs to change. One way to do this is to return mining land to Traditional Owners, especially unmined buffer lands. </p>
<p>Making decisions with First Nations people from the outset for new projects will help to overcome the systemic disadvantage in Australia since colonisation. It will also build a knowledge base for change. As one Hunter resident said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is so much to be gained in recognising and understanding the land management practices of the local Aboriginal people, based on 60,000 years of observation and science dealing with the oldest continent on the planet. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1095400507751976960"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-next-government-must-start-talking-about-a-just-transition-from-coal-heres-where-to-begin-181707">Australia's next government must start talking about a 'just transition' from coal. Here's where to begin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Climate and environment</h2>
<p>Plants and animals need connected ecosystems that allow them to move, adapt and survive. People in the Hunter <a href="https://www.hcec.org.au/climate-corridors">want a region-wide system of biodiversity corridors</a>. The transition from coal is an opportunity to set up a system that will give the region’s native species a fighting chance in a warming world. </p>
<p>As one resident told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rehabilitating the land to ensure biodiversity is restored is the most important thing to ensure the native plant species can grow back and allow the native animals to return. We need to restore the land to try and reverse the human impacts on the site as much as possible. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Dawn of a cleaner future</h2>
<p>The coal industry has had it pretty good in this region for generations. We need a focus now on cleaning up the mess so a new, cleaner future can emerge. This requires a new approach to planning and development in partnership with local communities. </p>
<p>The consultative approach behind the Hunter <a href="https://www.hunterrenewal.org.au/restoration_blueprint">community blueprint</a> demonstrates the value of including a wide range of perspectives in planning for a post-coal future.</p>
<p>What this set of prioritised recommendations shows is that the people of the Hunter understand the complexity of the task and want to be part of planning it. It will require new laws and well-resourced public agencies capable of managing restoration and ensuring coal companies pay their dues and clean up after themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kimberley Crofts contributed to the Community Blueprint discussed in this article. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Phelan contributed to the Community Blueprint discussed in this article. </span></em></p>The people of the Hunter have a clear picture of the future they want. But to unlock the region’s future opportunities, we must first clean up the costly legacy of its coal-mining past.Kimberley Crofts, Doctoral Student, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyLiam Phelan, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920182022-11-16T04:21:47Z2022-11-16T04:21:47ZRain makes coal heavy, slippery and harder to dig up. So what does La Niña mean for this already disrupted industry?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495541/original/file-20221116-20-7ad2yy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C16%2C5455%2C3620&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kelly Barnes/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the La Niña weather event wreaks havoc across New South Wales, coal operators are suffering. The Australian coal company Whitehaven is among them – last week <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/australian-coal-miner-hit-by-climate-change-chaos-20221109-p5bwps.html">slashing</a> its production forecasts after disruption by floods and heavy rain.</p>
<p>The irony of a coal company being hit by extreme weather events was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/australian-coal-miner-hit-by-climate-change-chaos-20221109-p5bwps.html">not lost</a> on some. While it’s hard to know how climate change is influencing this La Niña, evidence <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-clearly-disrupt-el-nino-and-la-nina-this-decade-40-years-earlier-than-we-thought-194529">suggests</a> flood events will become more frequent and intense as the planet warms.</p>
<p><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system/climate-variability">Climate variations</a> cause problems for many industries, and coal is not immune. Wet coal is heavier to transport. And rain can disrupt both mine operations and the transport networks crucial to moving coal and mine workers.</p>
<p>All this comes as coal demand surges, and as pressure mounts for the industry to wind back production to help tackle climate change. So let’s look at what the industry faces in these turbulent times.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="truck in piles of coal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495566/original/file-20221116-24-yjn9z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As the La Niña weather event wreaks havoc across New South Wales, coal operators are suffering.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dave Hunt/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Rain on the coal parade</h2>
<p>Australia is the world’s second-biggest thermal coal exporter, behind Indonesia. Our shipments mostly <a href="https://www.worldstopexports.com/coal-exports-country/">end up</a> in Japan, India, Vietnam and South Korea.</p>
<p>Thermal coal is burnt to make electricity. Australia also produces metallurgical or “coking” coal used to make steel. </p>
<p>In recent years, extreme weather in Australia has exposed the coal industry’s vulnerability to climate risk. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323357165_Adapting_to_climate_risks_and_extreme_weather_A_guide_for_mining_and_minerals_industry_professionals">shows</a> the 2010/2011 Queensland floods affected about 40 of the state’s 50 coal mines, costing more than A$2 billion in lost production. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-will-clearly-disrupt-el-nino-and-la-nina-this-decade-40-years-earlier-than-we-thought-194529">Climate change will clearly disrupt El Niño and La Niña this decade – 40 years earlier than we thought</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia is now experiencing more heavy rain thanks to a third consecutive La Niña. It led to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-08/workers-stood-down-no-pay-central-qld-mine/100682812">floods in Queensland</a> last year that forced the Baralaba North Coal Mine to suspend operations after water affected the mine and access roads. Workers were stood down without pay, prompting anger from the union. </p>
<p>In the NSW Hunter Valley, heavy rain in July this year <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/newcastle-coal-prices-soar-after-rail-tracks-flooded-20220708-p5b03v">forced closures</a> to a rail network that connects about 40 coal mines to the Port of Newcastle. Coal export services were suspended and the disruption pushed up coal prices.</p>
<p>Heavy rain is likely to interrupt supply for the remainder of spring and into summer. Last week, Whitehaven said rain and local flooding <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/australian-coal-miner-hit-by-climate-change-chaos-20221109-p5bwps.html">were affecting production</a> at two open-cut mines near Gunnedah in NSW. Roads were cut off as dams and rivers near the mine spilled over, forcing the company to transport staff to the mine by helicopter.</p>
<p>Rain can bring other problems. Wet coal can <a href="https://usea.org/sites/default/files/122012_Losses%20in%20the%20coal%20supply%20chain_ccc212.pdf">slip</a> and spill from conveyor belts while being loaded onto ships. And wet coal is heavy, making it more expensive to transport. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="coal train rounds a bend" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495567/original/file-20221116-16-8me7a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Australia’s coal industry relies on rail links that can be disrupted in heavy rain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Volatile times for coal</h2>
<p>Australian coal exports <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/exports-of-coal-coke-briquettes#:%7E:text=Exports%20of%20%2D%20Coal%2C%20Coke%20%26%20Briquettes%20in%20Australia%20averaged%201652.19,Million%20in%20August%20of%201971">remain strong</a>. But the rain disruptions add to already unsettled times for coal, both here and abroad.</p>
<p>Demand for coal has increased in the past two years, for a number of reasons. First is the global economic <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/coal-market-update-july-2022/demand">rebound</a> from the COVID pandemic. Second is soaring gas prices <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/21/asias-energy-supply-is-secure-even-as-europe-scrambles-analysts-say.html">following</a> Russia’s war on Ukraine. </p>
<p><a href="https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-The-Diesel-Crisis-Became-An-Inflationary-Time-Bomb.html">Diesel supply issues</a> and upcoming cuts to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/opec-heads-deep-supply-cuts-clash-with-us-2022-10-04/">crude oil production</a> are also driving coal demand.</p>
<p>As the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter, demand is likely to increase further. The United Kingdom, for example, plans to keep <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/britain-keep-coal-fired-power-plants-open-this-winter-2022-07-29/">coal plants operating</a> this winter, despite a longer-term plan to permanently close them by October 2024. And Asia may have to lean more towards coal for the next six months as liquified natural gas flows into Europe.</p>
<p>All this has pushed <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/coal">coal prices up</a>. So rain-related disruptions to Australian coal exports may result in missed opportunities for our coal operators. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/global-carbon-emissions-at-record-levels-with-no-signs-of-shrinking-new-data-shows-humanity-has-a-monumental-task-ahead-193108">Global carbon emissions at record levels with no signs of shrinking, new data shows. Humanity has a monumental task ahead</a>
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<p>At the same time, the coal industry faces headwinds. </p>
<p>Shipping costs have reached new <a href="https://www.freightwaves.com/news/dry-bulk-shipping-rates-hit-80000-per-day-as-buyers-scramble-for-coal">highs</a>. For Australian exporters, China’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/china-s-ban-on-australian-coal-to-last-at-least-another-two-years-20220224-p59zcu.html">ban</a> on Australian coal is an added complication – however this week’s <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/xi-jinping-meets-with-albanese-ending-diplomatic-deep-freeze-20221115-p5byhb.html">meeting</a> between the two nation’s leaders may have thawed diplomatic relations.</p>
<p>Then, of course, there’s climate change. Coal is the world’s <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-coal-demand-is-set-to-return-to-its-all-time-high-in-2022">largest source</a> of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. There’s widespread acknowledgement we must move away from burning coal and transition to renewable energy to avoid the worst climate harms.</p>
<p>Many countries still rely on coal for energy security and for use in industrial processes. Coal also supports jobs and provides export income.</p>
<p>In India, for example, the minister in charge of coal production <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7976087/coal-still-king-in-india-until-2040/">says</a> the fossil fuel will play an important role in the country until at least 2040. And a study released last month <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/06/reckless-coal-firms-plan-climate-busting-expansion-study-finds">found</a> hundreds of coal companies around the world were developing new mines and power stations. </p>
<p>So moving away from coal – particularly thermal coal – is likely to take time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="wind turbines against blue sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495568/original/file-20221116-14-rnqjwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">There is widespread acknowledgement that the world must transition to renewable energy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Russell Freeman/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>What does all this mean?</h2>
<p>In the short term, as <a href="https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2361775-australia-issues-202223-la-nina-weather-alert">La Niña hangs around</a>, Australia may struggle to fulfil its coal supply commitments over the Southern Hemisphere spring and summer. </p>
<p>This is likely to add further headaches to the already crunched energy market. </p>
<p>Wet conditions are not the only <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/australian-mining-industry-extreme-weather-climate-change-74498/">climate threat</a> to the mining industry. Drought and heat, for example, reduce the availability of water needed to operate mines. And extreme heat can affect equipment, electricity supply and worker productivity.</p>
<p>In the longer term, the prospects for Australia’s coal exports are very uncertain. The Reserve Bank, for example, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/grim-future-for-coal-and-gas-if-china-and-japan-meet-climate-plans-20211019-p5916y.html">says</a> coal and gas exports from Australia would at least halve if big buyers including China, Japan and South Korea meet their climate commitments. </p>
<p>There are many types of coal – and challenges abound in replacing them with cleaner alternatives. Until the transition is complete, coal is among many industries that must adapt to future weather extremes. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-technologically-advanced-society-is-choosing-to-destroy-itself-its-both-fascinating-and-horrifying-to-watch-192939">A technologically advanced society is choosing to destroy itself. It's both fascinating and horrifying to watch</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lurion De Mello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The rain comes as coal demand surges and pressure mounts for the industry to wind back production to help tackle climate change.Lurion De Mello, Senior Lecturer in Finance, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1884422022-08-22T17:36:56Z2022-08-22T17:36:56Z5 unsung films that dramatize America’s rich labor history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480123/original/file-20220819-3561-cpqei8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C613%2C471&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'The Salt of the Earth,' made during the height of the post-World War II Red Scare, was blacklisted.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/mediaviewer/rm2354993408?ref_=ttmi_mi_all_sf_38">IMDB</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/354455/approval-labor-unions-highest-point-1965.aspx">Unions are more popular now than at any time since 1965</a>, and the U.S. is in the midst of a new upsurge of union organizing. Is a Hollywood drama about angry Starbucks baristas or frustrated Amazon warehouse workers far behind?</p>
<p>Hollywood studios and independent producers have long depicted the collective efforts of working people to improve their lives and gain a voice in their workplaces and the larger society.</p>
<p>Some of the most well-known labor movies champion the struggle of the everyday worker: “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027977/">Modern Times</a>,” released in 1936, stars Charlie Chaplin going crazy due to his job on an assembly line. It features the famous image of Chaplin caught in the gears of factory machinery. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032551/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Grapes of Wrath</a>,” a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel, tells the story of sharecropper Tom Joad’s radicalization after his family and other migrant workers experience destitute conditions in California’s growing fields and overcrowded migrant camps. </p>
<p>1979’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079638/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Norma Rae</a>,” is based on the life of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/us/15sutton.html">Crystal Lee Sutton</a>, who worked in a J.P. Stevens mill in North Carolina. The textile worker and single mom inspires her fellow workers to overcome their racial animus and work together to vote in a union. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212826/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Bread and Roses</a>,” a 2000 film about low-wage janitors in Los Angeles, is based on the Service Employees International Union’s “<a href="https://www.labor.ucla.edu/what-we-do/research-tools/campaigns-and-research/justice-for-janitors/">Justice for Janitors</a> movement.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In an iconic scene from ‘Modern Times,’ Charlie Chaplin gets caught in the gears of factory machinery.</span></figcaption>
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<p>There’s also an anti-labor strain of Hollywood history, particularly during <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691153964/the-second-red-scare-and-the-unmaking-of-the-new-deal-left">the post-World War II Red Scare</a>, when studios purged left-wing writers, directors and actors through <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/hollywoods-red-scare-spread-stigma-association">an industrywide blacklist</a>. Red Scare-era releases such as 1952’s "Big Jim McLain” and the 1954 film “On the Waterfront” often depicted unions as corrupt or infiltrated by communist subversives.</p>
<p>When I teach labor history, I’ve used films to supplement books and articles. I’ve found that students more easily grasp the human dimensions of workers’ lives and struggles when they are depicted on the screen. </p>
<p>Here are five unsung labor movies, all based on real-life events, that, in my view, deserve more attention. </p>
<h2>1. ‘<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078008/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_6">Northern Lights</a>’ (1978)</h2>
<p>This is a fictionalized account of a fascinating but little-known political movement: <a href="https://www.history.nd.gov/ndhistory/npl.html">the Non-Partisan League</a>, which organized farmers in the upper Midwest in the early 1900s. </p>
<p>During this period, Midwestern farmers worked long hours to harvest grain that they were then forced to sell for low prices to elevators, while paying high prices to the big railroad companies and banks. Economic insecurity was a part of life, and foreclosures were routine. </p>
<p>The film follows Ray Sorenson, a young farmer influenced by socialist ideas who leaves his North Dakota farm to become a Non-Partisan League organizer. In his beat-up Model T, he travels the back roads, talking to farmers in their fields or around the potbellied stoves of country stores. He eventually persuades skeptical farmers that electing NPL candidates could get the government to create cooperative grain elevators, state-chartered banks with farmers as stockholders, and limits on the prices that railroads can charge farmers to haul their wheat. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NGMMmD7ty5c?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Northern Lights’ is based on an early-20th-century farmer-led political uprising in the Midwest.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In 1916, the Non-Partisan League did, in fact, elect farmer <a href="https://www.history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/governors12.html">Lynn Frazier</a> as governor of North Dakota with 79% of the vote. Two years later, the NPL won control of both houses of the state legislature and created the North Dakota Mill, still the only state-owned flour mill, and the <a href="https://ilsr.org/rule/bank-of-north-dakota-2/">The Bank of North Dakota</a>, which remains the nation’s only government-owned general-service bank.</p>
<h2>2. ‘<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033533/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">The Devil and Miss Jones</a>’ (1941)</h2>
<p>In this screwball comedy with a pro-union twist, Charles Coburn plays John P. Merrick, a fictional New York City department store owner.</p>
<p>After his employees hang him in effigy, the tycoon goes undercover to ferret out the agitators of a union drive led by a store clerk in the shoe department and a union organizer. </p>
<p>As he learns more about their lives, Merrick grows sympathetic to his workers – and even falls in love with one of his employees – none of whom know his true identity. As the workers prepare to go on strike, and even picket his house, Merrick reveals that he owns the store and agrees to their demands over pay and hours – and even marries the employee he’s fallen for. </p>
<p>The film was likely inspired by <a href="http://msr-archives.rutgers.edu/archives/Issue%2016/essays/Opler.htm">the 1937 sit-down strikes</a> by employees of New York City’s department stores. </p>
<h2>3. 'Salt of the Earth’ (1954)</h2>
<p>Decades ahead of its time, this story of New Mexico mine workers deals with issues of racism, sexism and class.</p>
<p>After a mine accident, the Mexican-American workers decide to strike. They demand better safety standards and equal treatment, since white miners are allowed to work in pairs, while Mexican ones are forced to work alone. The strikers expect the women to stay at home, cook and take care of the children. But when the company gets an injunction to end the men’s protest, the women step up and maintain the picket lines, earning greater respect from the men.</p>
<p>Made at the height of the Red Scare, the film’s writer, producer and director <a href="https://www.highonfilms.com/salt-of-the-earth-1954-essay/">had been blacklisted</a> for their leftist sympathies, so the film was sponsored by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, not a Hollywood studio. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002095/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Will Geer</a>, a blacklisted actor who later portrayed Grandpa Walton on the TV drama “The Waltons,” played the repressive sheriff. Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas played the leader of the wives. The other characters were portrayed by real miners and their wives who participated in the strike against <a href="https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/empire-zinc-strike/">the Empire Zinc Company</a>, which served as the inspiration for the film. </p>
<p>The film itself was blacklisted, and no major theater chain would show it.</p>
<h2>4. ‘<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280377/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">10,000 Black Men Named George</a>’ (2002)</h2>
<p>Andre Braugher stars as <a href="https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/asa-philip-randolph">A. Philip Randolph</a>, who organized the <a href="https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/eras/great-depression/brotherhood-of-sleeping-car-porters-win-over-pullman-company/">Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters</a>, the first Black-run union. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2009/05/08/103933268/pullman-porters-creating-a-black-middle-class">Being a porter on a Pullman railroad car</a> was one of the few jobs open to Black men. But wages were low, travel was constant and trains’ white passengers patronized the porters by calling all of them “George,” after <a href="https://www.nps.gov/people/george-m-pullman.htm">George Pullman</a>, the mogul who owned the company. </p>
<p>The company hired thugs to intimidate the porters, but Randolph and his top lieutenants persisted. They began their crusade in 1925 but didn’t get the company to sign a contract with the union until 1937, <a href="http://www.pennfedbmwe.org/Docs/reference/RLA_Simplified.html">thanks to a New Deal law</a> that gave railroad workers the right to unionize. Randolph became American’s leading civil rights organizer during the 1940s and 1950s and orchestrated the 1963 March on Washington. </p>
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<img alt="Black men stand on a stage holding an American flag and a union flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480118/original/file-20220819-26-jduttq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Members of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters display their banner at a 1955 ceremony celebrating the organization’s 30th anniversary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fight-or-be-slaves-members-of-the-brotherhood-of-sleeping-news-photo/515296680?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>4. 'North Country’ (2005)</h2>
<p>Charlize Theron portrays Josey Aimes, a desperate single mom who flees her abusive husband, returns to her hometown in northern Minnesota, moves in with her parents and takes a job at an iron mine. </p>
<p>There, she is constantly groped, insulted and bullied by the male workers. She complains to the company managers, who don’t take her seriously. The male-dominated union claims there’s nothing they can do. Aimes sues the company, which, after a dramatic courtroom scene, is forced to settle with her and other women. </p>
<p>With stellar performances by Theron, Sissy Spacek, Frances McDormand and Woody Harrelson, “North Country” is based on <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/real-women-north-country">a groundbreaking lawsuit</a> brought by women miners at Minnesota’s Eveleth Mines in 1975 that helped make sexual harassment a violation of workers’ rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188442/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Dreier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Inspired by real events, the films tackle issues of race, gender and class in ways that will resonate with many of today’s viewers.Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, Occidental CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1852922022-06-17T06:37:51Z2022-06-17T06:37:51ZNSW’s biggest coal mine to close in 2030. Now what about the workers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469383/original/file-20220617-17-i7m1un.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C650%2C7348%2C3702&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The clock is now ticking on New South Wales’ largest coal mine. BHP has announced it will close its Mount Arthur mine in the Hunter Valley in 2030 – 15 years ahead of its scheduled end of life.</p>
<p>This decision comes after two years <a href="https://www.bhp.com/-/media/documents/media/reports-and-presentations/2020/200818_bhpresultsfortheyearended30june2020.pdf">attempting to sell the mine</a>, in keeping with BHP’s strategy to divest itself of thermal coal operations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bhps-offloading-of-oil-and-gas-assets-shows-the-global-market-has-turned-on-fossil-fuels-166336">BHP's offloading of oil and gas assets shows the global market has turned on fossil fuels</a>
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<p>Given the collapsing market for coal assets, the lack of interested buyers is not a huge shock. But this announcement is still significant. The end is no longer speculative. There’s a firm deadline for the thousands of workers employed at the mine, and for the surrounding communities.</p>
<p>This use-by date should focus the attention of the local, state and federal governments on the much talked-about need for a just transition for coal communities. </p>
<p>How to assist those communities to survive (and prosper) after coal has been talked about for decades? Now with less than a decade to go, that talk must turn into concrete plans and action. </p>
<h2>End of the line for 2,000 workers</h2>
<p>The Mount Arthur mine is the <a href="https://www.mining-technology.com/analysis/feature-the-10-biggest-coal-mines-in-the-world/">one of the biggest coal mines in the world</a> by estimated reserves. Mining began in 2002, extending on existing mining in the area dating back to the late 1960s. Up to 20 million tonnes of thermal coal a year have been extracted. About <a href="https://www.bhp.com/what-we-do/global-locations/australia/nsw-mt-arthur-coal-mine-hunter-valley">2,000 workers</a> are employed at the site. </p>
<p>It’s worth noting BHP only has permits from the NSW government to operate the mine until 2026. So it will need to seek an short extension to keep to its schedule. The NSW government can be expected grant that extension. </p>
<p>The NSW government will probably be glad for the extra time to plan on the transition. It has already been <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/news/nsw-response-to-the-closure-of-the-eraring-power-station">caught off-guard</a> once this year, by Origin Energy’s February announcement of the early closure of its Eraring coal-fired power station in Lake Macquarie, also in the NSW Hunter region. </p>
<p>Federal government planning on just transitions for coal communities, meanwhile, has been stymied by the Coalition’s focus over the past decade on prolonging coal mining as long as possible. </p>
<p>What Labor will do is yet to be seen, though new federal member for the electorate of Hunter, Dan Repacholi, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-16/bhp-to-close-largest-coal-mine-in-nsw/101157404">has said</a> his key concern is the welfare of workers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-next-government-must-start-talking-about-a-just-transition-from-coal-heres-where-to-begin-181707">Australia's next government must start talking about a 'just transition' from coal. Here's where to begin</a>
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<h2>Three community priorities</h2>
<p>Communities in NSW’s Hunter Valley are more than aware that time is running out for coal mining. Last year <a href="https://www.hunterrenewal.org.au/future_proofing_the_hunter_report">community workshops were held</a> around the region to discuss what is needed for a just transition to occur. <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-local-solutions-to-replace-coal-jobs-and-ensure-a-just-transition-for-mining-communities-174883">Three priorities emerged from those discussions</a>:</p>
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<li>a local authority to coordinate transition efforts </li>
<li>funding for a “flagship” job-creation project</li>
<li>more resources for technical and vocational education.</li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-local-solutions-to-replace-coal-jobs-and-ensure-a-just-transition-for-mining-communities-174883">3 local solutions to replace coal jobs and ensure a just transition for mining communities</a>
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<p>The first priority has been somewhat met by the NSW government creating a <a href="https://www.singletonargus.com.au/story/7781474/resources-for-rejuvenation-fund-enacted/">Royalties For Rejuvenation Fund and Expert Panel</a>, which has $25 million a year to spend on mining communities.</p>
<p>But compare that to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-14/muja-power-station-to-close-in-coal-phase-out-as-renewables-rise/101150972">$660 million</a> the Western Australian government has allocated to fund the coal transition of a single town, Collie. </p>
<h2>Lessons from the past</h2>
<p><a href="https://sei.sydney.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SEI-formatted-Just-Transition-from-Coal-in-Aus-Summary-Report.pdf">Research shows</a> the best transitions are those that are equitable, just, and well-planned. </p>
<p>The good thing is that the Hunter Valley has experience with transition, from when BHP shuttered its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-09-30/newcastle-remembers-steelworks-closure/1084304">Newcastle steelworks in 1999</a>. While not a perfect case study, it does provides lessons for today. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-want-to-be-part-of-that-movement-residents-embrace-renewable-energy-but-worry-how-their-towns-will-change-184743">'We want to be part of that movement': residents embrace renewable energy but worry how their towns will change</a>
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<p>Particularly important is <a href="https://cdn.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/closure-of-steelworks-in-newcastle.pdf">a collaborative approach</a> between unions and management. This ensured workers had support for redundancy, retraining, financial planning and finding new employment. A Hunter Valley <a href="https://www.hunterjobsalliance.org.au/">alliance between unions and environmental groups</a> is pushing for the same level of collaborative planning. </p>
<p>Without a co-operative and inclusive approach, drawing on local knowledge, no transition plan is likely to succeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185292/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kimberley receives an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend as part of her PhD programme with the University of Technology, Sydney. She is affiliated with Hunter Renewal and Hunter Jobs Alliance as a volunteer</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Phelan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A just transition for coal mining communities has been talked about for decades. BHP’s decision this week shows it’s time to get serious.Liam Phelan, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleKimberley Crofts, Doctoral student, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1838282022-06-01T02:51:30Z2022-06-01T02:51:30ZWith diesel $2 a litre and a new leader, the Nationals could pivot on climate to focus on energy independence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466486/original/file-20220601-49132-c8e3c3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4262%2C2837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You might look at the recent election result and conclude it was a reasonable one for the National Party. Its MPs held their seats despite several swings against them, and gained strength within the Coalition, after the Liberal Party suffered major losses. </p>
<p>But as the leadership change yesterday makes clear, the National Party has internal tensions. Its new leader David Littleproud must work out how to approach climate action, given the party’s regional heartland has tended to be sceptical of anything smacking of environmentalism. </p>
<p>Arguing that climate change isn’t happening or is insignificant is no longer viable, given farmers are on the front line in adapting to new climate regimes. </p>
<p>Littleproud has staked a claim to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-nationals-leader-littleproud-says-sensible-centre-is-where-elections-are-won-184041">middle ground</a>. That’s understandable, given the north-south divide sometimes apparent in the parliamentary party room over personalities, differences in state party priorities and regional development strategies, including coal and gas. </p>
<p>Over the next three years, we can expect the Labor government to accelerate the shift to renewables and electric vehicles. Littleproud will have his work cut out for him in getting his party to accept the idea of an energy transition. </p>
<p>But it could be possible. The Nationals could reset and focus on new regional jobs in renewables and energy independence for farmers to avoid soaring diesel costs. Or they could keep preaching the word of coal. While electorally successful in central Queensland in 2019, this may have limited resonance come 2025. </p>
<h2>Pro-coal Nationals may have to change tack</h2>
<p>The Coalition won in 2019 in an upset, with the Nationals focusing on resources seats in Queensland and New South Wales. While the same rhetoric probably helped the Nationals keep such seats, it did not resonate more widely even in the coal electorate of Hunter they hoped to win from Labor. </p>
<p>Within the party, the coal crowd is vocal, but doesn’t represent all views. In Queensland, the Nationals tend to be pro-coal and support the big-personality style of former leader Barnaby Joyce. But southern MPs such as Victoria’s Darren Chester follow the Victorian party’s lead in focusing on agricultural and rural community development through infrastructure and business development – even though Chester lives in coal territory in Gippsland. Some NSW Nationals MPs are little affected by coal, while some further north have to deal with constituents who are angry over gas exploration on farmland. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-nationals-leader-littleproud-says-sensible-centre-is-where-elections-are-won-184041">New Nationals leader Littleproud says 'sensible centre' is where elections are won</a>
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<p>The pro-coal push is also about ideological positioning, signalling that the Nationals stand for “traditional” nation-building industries and oppose the “impractical” ideas of the Greens. </p>
<p>It’s not just signalling though. Given the lack of broad plans for regional development in Australia, long-term coal jobs can be appealing. Modest business grants, road repairs and toilet blocks at election time are no substitute for major investment. It’s no wonder regional politicians want to secure these big investments. </p>
<p>So could we see the Nationals change course? Littleproud may have sniffed the winds of change, perhaps aided by some retirements from Queensland at this recent election. The Coalition has finally endorsed the concept of net-zero greenhouse emissions, with National support secured through <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-31/barnaby-joyce-claims-he-planned-to-stand-down/101112502">major concessions</a> from the Liberals. </p>
<p>Plenty of rural residents have no great love for extractive industries. Three years of Labor government will likely shift climate and energy policy signficantly. Private investment in coal-fired power stations will also fall. </p>
<p>It will be tricky to change course. If the Nationals move away from traditional resources and fossil fuels, what will they focus on? Could they pivot to focusing on renewables and directing cheap, clean energy into agricultural and rural communities? They would have support from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/17/the-roads-less-travelled-how-the-pandemic-lured-australians-from-the-city-to-the-country">changing demographics</a> of the bush, given so many city-dwellers have fled the city during COVID. But it would be a painful shift for party traditionalists.</p>
<h2>We don’t have to talk about climate change to take action</h2>
<p>One answer might be to <a href="https://grist.org/politics/secrets-to-passing-climate-legislation-in-red-states-bipartisanship/">avoid talking</a> about climate change, and focus on energy transitions to cut soaring electricity and fuel costs. Diesel at A$2 a litre is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-04-21/high-fuel-prices-prompt-off-the-grid-transition/100947528">hitting farmers hard</a>. High fuel costs also make fertiliser more expensive. </p>
<p>If Littleproud is up for it, he could focus on energy independence for farmers, backing rural renewable co-operatives as a form of country self-reliance, and promote hydrogen and electric tractors and solar/battery-powered farms to save money and protect farmers from forces the Nationals cannot control, such as war in Europe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Solar and cows on farm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466491/original/file-20220601-48429-hlh78f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Energy independence for farmers could be one way for the Nationals to refocus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Some farmers are already powering pumps with solar energy and switching smaller vehicles to battery-electric. There’s a pathway emerging, but accelerating the rural transition requires sustained effort. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-field-to-store-to-plate-farmers-are-worried-about-climate-change-178885">From field to store to plate, farmers are worried about climate change</a>
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<p>When you live in a regional area, as I do, you come across three responses to climate change. One is outright scepticism. This has dropped over time, as the older generations have retired and climate events have intensified. </p>
<p>Most people fall into the second group, who know the climate has changed but don’t focus much on the cause. And then you have the front-foot brigade such as <a href="https://farmersforclimateaction.org.au/">Farmers for Climate Action</a>, who are researching and trialling different methods of plant breeding, changing water collection to catch what water is now available, and finding new ways to keep moisture in the soil and manage irrigation more smartly. </p>
<p>In short, many farmers are already adapting to climate change, whether they use that name or not. They have to. They’re cropping more flexibly. Wine growers are moving around the country, chasing specific climatic conditions. No matter what they say publicly, they’re adapting. </p>
<p>Even if Littleproud is forced to double down on support for coal, change will soon be forced on him. Environmental tariffs from major trading partners such as the European Union could put in place a carbon “tax” on our exports and those of other nations where carbon pollution is not priced. </p>
<p>That will hurt farmers, who will see their exports cost more and sell less. This poses a real predicament for the Nationals. How will they balance coal, agriculture and the cost of living and farming in rural Australia?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Cockfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Nationals have long promoted coal for regional development and politics. But new leader David Littleproud could seize the moment and refocus the regional party.Geoff Cockfield, Honorary Professor in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836412022-05-26T06:12:46Z2022-05-26T06:12:46ZTo walk the talk on climate, Labor must come clean about the future for coal and gas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465442/original/file-20220526-20-xpb1rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3161&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Baker/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s climate election has been won. Now comes the harder part. It’s now entirely possible we could see a government committed to domestic climate action, speeding up the exit of coal and gas from our grid and electrifying transport –while still exporting vast quantities of fossil fuels for other countries to burn. </p>
<p>In short, we could fall into what we can call the “Norway trap”: clean at home, dirty abroad. Norway has vigorously pursued clean energy and electric transport at home and is <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/norway">progressing well</a> towards its goal of a 55% reduction in emissions by the end of the decade – while doubling down on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58896850">exporting</a> its oil and gas reserves, thereby undermining its domestic gains. </p>
<p>In Australia, Labor still believes in supporting and expanding our fossil fuel exports, which are by far our largest contribution to heating the planet. Backing fossil fuels no doubt helped the new government keep coal seats such as Hunter in New South Wales. </p>
<p>To change this situation, we need to urgently reduce the influence of the fossil fuel lobby – and include our exported emissions in the government’s net zero plans. </p>
<h2>Wasn’t this the climate election?</h2>
<p>Despite the clear mandate for stronger climate action, both major parties soft-pedalled on exports to woo electorates with substantial coal and gas infrastructure. Seats such as Hunter, and Flynn in Queensland, recorded swings to Labor in a reversal of the 2019 election, when Labor was not seen to be standing up for the interests of coal communities. </p>
<p>This time around, Labor made <a href="https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/media-centre/embracing-the-opportunity-of-change-2-june-2021">its support</a> clear, flagging continuation – and even expansion – of our fossil fuel exports. In a speech to the Minerals Council last year, Anthony Albanese said of coal exports, “We will continue to export these commodities.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-answer-the-argument-that-australias-emissions-are-too-small-to-make-a-difference-118825">How to answer the argument that Australia's emissions are too small to make a difference</a>
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<p>That means Australia will go to the next global climate summit trumpeting its increased commitment to slashing emissions while maintaining its dubious role as one of the largest fossil fuel exporters in the world. We could even see ourselves once again aligned with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58982445">Russia and Saudi Arabia</a> on opposing production cuts. </p>
<p>It’s long been a climate sceptic talking point that Australia’s emissions are just 1.2% of the world’s total – the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/australia">15th-highest</a> in the world. But our vast liquefied natural gas (LNG), thermal and metallurgical coal exports are the equivalent of <a href="https://staging.climatejustice.co/export-emissions-tool/">double our domestic emissions</a>. That means exports are by far our biggest contribution to climate change. </p>
<h2>Real change starts with taming the lobbyists</h2>
<p>Little about this situation will change while Labor and the Coalition keep listening to the fossil fuel industry – and accepting millions of dollars in donations. Over the past decade the fossil fuel industry has given hundreds of millions of dollars to political parties. <a href="https://publicintegrity.org.au/political-donations-and-the-resources-sectors-influence/">Woodside</a>, one of Australia’s largest oil and gas producers, has donated more than A$2 million to political parties. </p>
<p>Without change, the revolving door of politicians and staffers who end up working for fossil fuel companies will continue <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/whos-in-the-room/">slowing climate policy</a>. </p>
<p>This election offers us a long overdue reset. What we need is to tackle Australia’s total contribution to climate change. That includes our role as one of the world’s top exporters of <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2021/09/23/Still-Not-Getting-Energy-Prices-Right-A-Global-and-Country-Update-of-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-466004">government-subsidised</a> fossil fuels. We can’t just aim to get Australia to net zero and say job done if we leave the export industry to just keep growing, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/03/australia-considering-more-than-100-fossil-fuel-projects-that-could-produce-5-of-global-industrial-emissions">more than 100</a> fossil fuel projects in the pipeline. </p>
<p>Steps the government should take immediately should include clamping down on fossil fuel lobbyists and the revolving door. It would be simple to ban government employees from joining the fossil fuel industry without a long cool-down period, as well as banning ex-ministers or politicians from taking up lucrative posts in the industry when they leave politics. The government should also end all direct and indirect subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. </p>
<p>Our fossil fuel lobby has had too many wins over the last two decades. We cannot afford to have our government beholden to an industry incompatible with a liveable climate. We can expect lobby groups to lay low for a little while. But the role of these lobbyists is to ensure that nothing actually challenges their ability to export vast quantities of fossil fuels. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man entering revolving door" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465445/original/file-20220526-11-qo0vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">There are dangers to the revolving door between politics and industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>We cannot ignore our role in heating the planet</h2>
<p>You’ve no doubt heard the argument that if we don’t export fossil fuels, someone else will. This doesn’t stack up. </p>
<p>That’s because the argument ignores the impact leadership in this area would have. If one of the world’s largest fossil fuel exporters began to phase out its exports and bed down a just transition for those affected, it would have a huge impact on fossil fuel finance and signal time really is up for an industry long thought untouchable. Leading on this would show our neighbours in the Pacific that we can change.</p>
<p>This argument is also morally dubious. Just because someone else is doing something unacceptable, that doesn’t give anyone else license to do the same. We cannot let our leaders and fossil fuel companies off the hook just because other fossil fuel exporters exist. If this argument were really true, then Australia should have no qualms about engaging in bribery or corruption to achieve its ends if other countries are likely to do so.</p>
<p>This election result – and especially the climate campaigns of the Greens and teal independents – has given us our first good opportunity in years to make a real dint in our emissions, both local and exported.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Moss receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Winning the election might be the easy part for Labor compared to weaning Australia off fossil fuel exports. But it must be done.Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1784572022-03-14T14:52:11Z2022-03-14T14:52:11ZCoal mining: we’re documenting the voices of unsung English miners before they disappear<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451850/original/file-20220314-118322-10wrz07.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C0%2C4267%2C3218&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Statue commemorating coal mining in Teversal, Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teversal-nottinghamshire-uk-september-13-2016-485926084">Oscar Johns/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For centuries coal has been mined in England’s East Midlands and it has helped to shape the identity of the region. Many pit communities formed around the collieries and the daily routine of mining affected everybody’s life, not just the life of miners and their families. The last deep coal mine in the region, Thoresby Colliery, closed in 2015, and with it, a way of life is now rapidly disappearing.</p>
<p>The journalist and author Peter Crookston has written about the coal-mining industry in the north east of England. In his book, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/27/pitmens-requiem-peter-crookston-review">The Pitmen’s Requiem</a>, Crookston shows that reminders of mining are needed as colliery sites are vanishing and mining artefacts are moving into museums and archives. We believe the same is true for the East Midlands, but this region is frequently omitted from studies and publications. My colleague David Amos and I wanted to ensure that these lives are not forgotten and that memories of “life in coal” are passed on to younger generations. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4965777W/The_collier%27s_rant?edition=ia%3Acolliersrantsong0000coll">The Collier’s Rant</a>, another book about mining in the north east of England, the cultural history academic Robert Colls mentions that much writing about miners is not written by them but by people who had no experience of mining. As such, miners become people who must be spoken for, rather than spoken with. </p>
<p>So to preserve the voices of people who are still around in the East Midlands, it was important for them to have a hand in shaping how and what we remember of mining life. David Amos and I decided to put together an anthology of creative writing, the first collection of poems and short stories about the coal-mining industry in the area. We made sure that the anthology included works by those who had worked down the mines or were family members of miners and wanted to reflect their experiences of mining life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white picture of a derelict coal mine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451846/original/file-20220314-24-10u1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The derelict Clipstone Colliery coal mine in Nottinghamshire, in the East Midlands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/derelict-clipstone-colliery-coal-mine-nottinghamshire-1057904681">Gemma Flecther/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Writing miners</h2>
<p>What binds miners together is a very strong sense of common identity and camaraderie. The embodiment of this feeling is the community – the allotments, the brass bands, the galas, the sports teams, the holidays and the joint days out. In many mining towns, the pit was relied upon to sustain these communities. </p>
<p>Part of preserving this world is by documenting the language of coal miners, known as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/pit-talk-the-secret-coal-mine-language-thats-now-going-extinct-96594">pit talk</a>”. Pit talk refers to the vocabulary used to describe the tools they worked with, the places they worked and the different jobs they carried out. These terms differ in the coalfields around the UK and many words are distinctive to a particular area. For example, in the East Midlands, the largest shovel is referred to as an “elephant’s tab”, where “tab” is the local word for “ear”.</p>
<p>Some of the pieces in the anthology are emotional and hard-hitting, writing about accidents and loss. Some are rude or offensive, but many are very funny. Humour was crucial in coal mining, acting as an antidote to dangerous working conditions. For example, in his Ode to Kevin Moore, former miner Mal Johnson writes about a “ganger” (men in charge of moving equipment) in his pit:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kevin Moore is 34, he can’t walk very fast, a mouse once raced him down the gate, and Kevin – he came last!‘</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Foregrounding these voices allows for a truthful representation of mining rather than one that is overly romantic or overly grim. What we get is the reality – the good and the bad. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Coal miner bringing in the last of the coal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451843/original/file-20220314-23-uyeyan.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Representations of coal mining are often by those with no connection to the industry or way of life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Coal Mining Museum for England</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Coal in the blood</h2>
<p>The structure of the book follows themes that cover much of a coal miner’s life, including everyday surroundings and different working practices above and below ground. There are also chapters on mining disasters and rescues as well as the importance of the wider coal communities. This includes different migrants who came from other regions and backgrounds, such as “<a href="https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/5-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-the-bevin-boys/">Bevin Boys</a>”. </p>
<p>These men were named after Ernest Bevin, a Labour politician who served as Minister of Labour and National Service in the coalition government during the second world war. Bevin set up a system where a proportion of young men conscripted into the army were sent to work in the coal mines between 1943 and 1948 to increase the rate of coal production. </p>
<p>Of course, there is a chapter on industrial action and strikes which were a common part of life and, particularly in the East Midlands, still influence contemporary thinking about miners. This includes stories from those who went on strike, those who did not and also a former police officer who worked in Mansfield during the strike period. </p>
<p>The final chapters include work that reviews the process of mine cutbacks and closures and the effects on their communities and coalfield as well as the legacies of coal, where we are today, and what miners’ memories and feelings are now that all the deep mines have gone and the associated way of life is disappearing.</p>
<p>Coal may no longer be king, but coal has changed the way we live. We must document these voices and experiences now because, as former miner Gren Gaskell wrote in his poem For Deep Soft Seam Miners:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Soon we shall all have died, the men who wielded the pick<br>
Breaking the coal to shovel.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Braber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Coal-mining communities are disappearing in the UK so it’s more important than ever to authentically document their way of life.Natalie Braber, Associate Professor, Linguistics, School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1739882022-02-20T19:15:54Z2022-02-20T19:15:54ZHow Australia’s geology gave us an abundance of coal – and a wealth of greentech minerals to switch to<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447230/original/file-20220218-23-168m8vj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5463%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two recent announcements hint at a seismic shift about to hit Australia’s coal industry.</p>
<p>Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/20/mike-cannon-brookes-and-brookfield-in-bid-to-takeover-agl-and-shut-down-coal-plants-earlier">put forward</a> an extraordinary joint bid to takeover AGL Energy, Australia’s <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/coal-giant-agl-again-tops-list-of-australias-biggest-emitters/">biggest emitting company</a>, over the weekend. If successful, it would see AGL’s coal-fired power stations shut down early. And last week, Origin Energy announced that the country’s largest coal plant, Eraring, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-largest-coal-plant-will-close-7-years-early-but-theres-still-no-national-plan-for-coals-inevitable-demise-177317">will close</a> seven years early. </p>
<p>These developments have confirmed what many already knew: the death of the coal industry is now inevitable.</p>
<p>Australia’s coal industry directly and indirectly supports <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/theausinstitute/pages/3406/attachments/original/1607711892/Fossil_Fuel_Employment_Transitions_Final.pdf?1607711892">less than 1%</a> of the Australian workforce, with these jobs heavily concentrated in a handful of small regions in Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. </p>
<p>Coal is the reason some of these communities exist. If we don’t transition carefully, these communities will break apart, as <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2016/06/australias-top-10-ghost-towns">so many mining towns</a> have before.</p>
<p>But Australia is also abundant in many of the minerals and rare earth elements our society will run on in the future, including lithium, cobalt and copper. If government and industry pivot from coal to green energy, Australian jobs in energy and the minerals industry will still exist. <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/stop-pretending-governments-urged-to-come-clean-on-early-coal-closures">All we need is a plan</a>. </p>
<p>But why did coal end up in these dense deposits in a small number of places? And how can we ensure the end of the coal industry happens in a way that doesn’t decimate people’s livelihoods? The answers to those questions can be found in Australia’s ancient past – let’s take a trip back 299 million years. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lithium in hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447216/original/file-20220218-23-14jyfdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Australian mining worker holds a handful of processed lithium.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The past shapes the present</h2>
<p>Our destination: eastern Australia, 299 million years ago during the Permian age. In this period, Australia was much further south, close to where Antarctica is now. </p>
<p>Australia was slowly emerging from a long, cold period which had lasted for millions of years. Ice sheets still covered parts of southern and western Australia and glaciers were common in the mountains of the eastern states. </p>
<p>As the world warmed and ice sheets melted, high rainfall saw dense forests grow in eastern Australia. Swamps and extensive river systems covered swathes of land. </p>
<p>In these <a href="https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/1152685/view/permian-glossopteris-forest-illustration">dense, swampy forests</a>, the most abundant trees were from a now-extinct group called Glossopteris. These trees, known as seed ferns, reached heights of 40 metres with long, bare trunks giving way to a dense canopy of branches bearing broad, tongue-shaped leaves. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-epic-550-million-year-story-of-ulu-u-and-the-spectacular-forces-that-led-to-its-formation-167040">The epic, 550-million-year story of Uluṟu, and the spectacular forces that led to its formation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s animal life was vastly different to today. Our oceans were full of trilobites, which looked a little like slaters with a hard mineral exoskeleton. They lived underwater and had incredible vision with <a href="https://www.amnh.org/research/paleontology/collections/fossil-invertebrate-collection/trilobite-website/the-trilobite-files/trilobite-eyes">eyes made of calcite</a> – the same mineral that makes up stalactites and stalagmites in caves. </p>
<p>On land, the vertebrate fossil record from this time is intriguingly sparse, but we suspect animals such as the Labyrinthodont wandered the swamps (think of a salamander but the size of a crocodile and with razor-sharp teeth). </p>
<p>It was in this glorious, terrifying swampy wonderland that eastern Australia’s coal deposits formed. When the towering Glossopteris died, they toppled into the swamps and rivers. High rainfall meant dead trees were completely covered by water so deep it contained little oxygen. </p>
<p>The lack of oxygen meant the trees didn’t break down like they normally would, instead retaining some of the energy they accumulated when alive. More and more plant matter was deposited, and the swamps and rivers deepened. </p>
<p>Under the weight from above, the lowest layers compacted and became more dense, eventually forming peat. When peat is buried deeper, compacted and heated it eventually forms a carbonaceous black rock: coal.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="fossil leaves from a coal deposit" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447184/original/file-20220218-19-74jmk5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The fossil leaf of a Glossopteris seed fern found in coal deposits in New South Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glossopteris_fossil_seed_fern_leaves_in_claystone_(Illawarra_Coal_Measures,_Upper_Permian;_Dunedoo_area,_New_South_Wales,_Australia)_(15448560516).jpg">James St John, Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Coal is remarkably rare</h2>
<p>Coal deposits are extraordinarily rare on Earth and require very specific circumstances to form. You need enormous volumes of woody plant matter being deposited into a swamp, river or shallow marine environment. Australia’s Glossopteris trees were uniquely adapted to grow prolifically in swamps and rivers, so they were the perfect coal ingredient. </p>
<p>But the coal checklist doesn’t stop there. The watery graveyard for the trees had to deepen over time to make room for more trees on top, while keeping the whole system covered in water. This environment had to exist for a very long time. To make a 1m-thick black coal deposit, you need a 10m-thick layer of trees. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/plant-fossils-have-a-lot-to-teach-us-about-earths-history-91014">Plant fossils have a lot to teach us about Earth's history</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>After the coal deposit forms, it needs to be preserved. That usually means no major tectonic activity after the deposit forms.</p>
<p>Australia’s deposits formed close to the coast. If the sea level had risen just a little, many coal deposits would be submerged and inaccessible. </p>
<p>In short, several environmental and geological processes have to occur at the same time for coal deposits to form. Australia’s eastern margin proved to be the perfect setting.</p>
<h2>Using our geology for a just transition</h2>
<p>Today, Australia is a <a href="https://publications.industry.gov.au/publications/resourcesandenergyquarterlyseptember2021/index.html#:%7E:text=Australian%20thermal%20coal%20exports%20declined,economies%20return%20to%20normal%20conditions">coal giant</a>, the world’s largest exporter of coking coal and second-largest of thermal coal. While this might be lucrative for the companies involved, coal is not compatible with a liveable climate. Every year, burning coal <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-fuel">causes 40%</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>Governments often hold up coal jobs as a reason Australia can’t part ways with coal mining. <a href="https://cpd.org.au/2022/01/whos-buying-centre-for-policy-development/">Recent modelling</a> of a <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition">net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario</a> shows between 100,000 and 300,000 jobs will be lost in Australia’s coal-mining communities. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-coal-is-coming-3-times-faster-than-expected-governments-must-accept-it-and-urgently-support-a-just-transition-173591">The end of coal is coming 3 times faster than expected. Governments must accept it and urgently support a 'just transition'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This would be <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/plan-needed-for-exit-of-thousands-of-coal-workers-unions-20220217-p59xcl">devastating for coal towns</a> if it happened suddenly. But we don’t have to do it like that. If new industries are brought into these towns over the next 20 years, it may have minimal impact.</p>
<p>Not only that, but Australia will need mining workers for the foreseeable future – just not in coal. </p>
<p>Coal, gas and oil are quickly getting replaced with renewables, electric cars and battery storage, among other technologies. That means mining. To build wind turbines, solar panels and battery storage we need minerals such as copper, cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements. </p>
<p>Luckily, Australia’s geology means we have rich deposits of many of these minerals, too. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cobalt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447212/original/file-20220218-19-1yjc8j8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Could we switch from coal to cobalt?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like coal, these minerals are concentrated in particular regions. And like coal, they have been millions of years in the making. Mount Isa’s copper and rare earth element deposits formed when hot, salty fluids acted like a magnet for metals, bringing them up to the surface and depositing them in little pockets we can find by understanding the geology. </p>
<p>Much of this happened 1.5 billion years ago, but the deposits are still there, just under the surface.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-rocks-any-great-australian-rock-collection-should-have-and-where-to-find-them-163578">5 rocks any great Australian rock collection should have, and where to find them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/news/news/2021/clean-exports-could-deliver-395-000-new-jobs#gs.pwwo8o">modelling</a> suggests Australia’s switch to export clean energy and green technology minerals could generate 395,000 jobs in locations likely to be affected by global decarbonisation.</p>
<p>On a wider scale, the <a href="https://bze.org.au/research_release/million-jobs-plan/">million jobs plan</a>, proposed by the Beyond Zero Emissions thinktank, details how 1.8 million new jobs could be created in Australia in renewables and low-emissions technology. </p>
<p>We have the potential to be a global leader in climate action through our mining prowess and human capital coupled with our geological wealth of minerals vital to the decarbonisation push now under way. No one need be left behind in the coal towns – as long as our leaders plan for this now.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melanie Finch is the President of the Women in Earth and Environmental Sciences Australasia (WOMEESA) Network. She is a 2021-2022 Science and Technology Australia Superstar of STEM.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Finch has previously received funding from an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Society of Economic Geologists Graduate Student Fellowship.</span></em></p>Quirks of our geology made Australia unusually abundant in coal. But as the world goes green, we can switch to vital clean mineral resources so coalminers aren’t left behind.Melanie Finch, Lecturer in Structural Geology and Metamorphism, James Cook UniversityEmily Finch, Beamline Scientist at ANSTO, and Research Affiliate, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1748832022-01-17T05:25:48Z2022-01-17T05:25:48Z3 local solutions to replace coal jobs and ensure a just transition for mining communities<p>As the world <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/12/second-cop26-draft-criticised-for-weakened-language-on-fossil-fuels">shifts to renewable energy</a>, helping the communities that have depended on fossil fuels for jobs is becoming ever more pressing. </p>
<p>The 2015 Paris Agreement notes the imperative of a “just transition” for affected workforces, with “the creation of decent work and quality jobs” to replace those lost. </p>
<p>Trade unionists have been <a href="https://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/ituc_frontlines_climate_change_report_en.pdf">arguing this point</a> for at least several decades. The first use of the phrase “just transition” attributed to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, which called for a “Just Transition Program” for workers in the logging industry <a href="https://www.sdearthtimes.com/et0597/et0597s4.html">in 1996</a>.</p>
<p>Yet for all the talk since, action remains scarce. </p>
<p>Three clear priorities for policy makers, however, have emerged from Australia’s Hunter Valley region, where coal mines <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-02/coal-transition-climate-change-hunter-region/13109642">employ about 14,000 workers</a> directly and thousands more indirectly. These are: </p>
<ul>
<li>the need for a local coordinating authority</li>
<li>funding for a “flagship” job-creation project, and</li>
<li>more resources for technical and vocational education. </li>
</ul>
<p>These priorities were identified through consultations undertaken in late 2021 by two community organisations, <a href="https://www.hunterrenewal.org.au/">Hunter Renewal</a> and <a href="https://www.hunterjobsalliance.org.au">Hunter Jobs Alliance</a>. They did so in response to the NSW government announcing A$25 million a year to a <a href="https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/expert-panel-for-royalties-for-rejuvenation">Royalties for Rejuvenation Fund</a>.</p>
<p>The fund is meant to “ensure coal mining communities have the support they need to develop other industries in the long-term”. </p>
<p>But how to spend the money wisely? </p>
<p>The consultations involved 314 people from across the region ranking 22 ideas from from previous work on this issue. About one-third of participants were involved in workshop discussions. The balance contributed through a survey.</p>
<p>Key to the top three priorities is the need for <a href="https://climatejusticealliance.org/just-transition/">self-determination</a>, allowing local communities to decide on which solutions are best and how to implement them, not a “cookie-cutter” approach imposed from the top.</p>
<p>As one workshop participant put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The most important thing is involving the local community in designing the transition. Unless you take the locals with you on the journey, so that they own the changes, it will not be successful.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>1. Have a local coordinating authority</h2>
<p>Local coordination is important to ensure solutions reflect a community’s needs, skills and opportunities. </p>
<p>In Victoria, the state government set up the <a href="https://lva.vic.gov.au/">Latrobe Valley Authority</a> in 2016, following the unexpected announcement of the closure of <a href="https://theconversation.com/hazelwoods-closure-calls-for-a-rethink-on-latrobe-valley-solutions-68143">the Hazelwood power station</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>Beginning with $270 million in funding, the authority is headquartered in Morwell, in the heart of the Latrobe Valley’s coal-mining industry.</p>
<p>This means those who work for the authority know the region and are in touch with the stakeholders from industry, government, education and community organisations who inform its <a href="https://www.oecd.org/sti/inno/smartspecialisation.htm">“Smart Specialisation”</a> approach to identify local strengths and competitive advantages. </p>
<p>A local authority can also coordinate with other authorities to ensure fossil fuel communities aren’t competing against each other by pursuing to create jobs in the same new industries.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hazelwoods-closure-calls-for-a-rethink-on-latrobe-valley-solutions-68143">Hazelwood's closure calls for a rethink on Latrobe Valley solutions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Fund flagship job-creation projects</h2>
<p>Flagship projects give tangible direction to the transition and create hope for the future. </p>
<p>An example comes from the coal-mining community of Collie in Western Australia. It involves industry, government and university researchers working together on <a href="https://colliecrete.com.au/">a project</a> to make “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-18/geopolymer-concrete-coal-mining-town/100464518">Colliecrete</a>”, a more sustainable form of concrete made from fly-ash, a waste product from the burning of coal by the local coal-fired power stations.</p>
<p>Emulating this plan using waste fly-ash from Hunter Valley power stations could potentially create 3,000 permanent full-time jobs in NSW, according to <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lcdocs/other/14147/Report.pdf">a report</a> commissioned by Hunter Community Environment Centre.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greening-the-concrete-jungle-how-to-make-environmentally-friendly-cement-82686">Greening the concrete jungle: how to make environmentally friendly cement</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Expand vocational training</h2>
<p>Retraining is crucial to new industries to flourish, and for workers to find new jobs. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/resources/resources-hub/clean-energy-at-work">2020 report</a> from the Clean Energy Council found shortages of skilled and experienced staff are hampering development in renewable energy industries. The report recommended the entire vocational educational system needs reviewing, because “existing training systems are not meeting industry needs”.</p>
<p>Indeed in the Hunter region, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-22/rural-tafe-campus-sale-fears-for-agricultural-education/13162414">TAFE closures</a> are occurring at a time when they should be expanding. </p>
<p>As a workshop participant put it (with great understatment): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is problematic when funding keeps getting cut.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Think local, act local</h2>
<p>Local communities understand the transition away from economic reliance on fossil-fuel industries can’t happen overnight. They are keen to get moving.
These priorities identified by the coal-mining communities of NSW Hunter Valley hold lessons for the rest of Australia, and the world. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-transition-from-coal-4-lessons-for-australia-from-around-the-world-115558">How to transition from coal: 4 lessons for Australia from around the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What’s important is that local communities take the leading role in defining their challenges, and then addressing them. </p>
<p>The people who know a community best, and what is possible, are those who live in them. You just have to ask them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kimberley receives an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend as part of her PhD programme with the University of Technology, Sydney. She is affiliated with Hunter Renewal and Hunter Jobs Alliance as a volunteer. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Phelan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three ‘just transition’ priorities identified by the coal-mining communities of the Hunter Valley in NSW hold lessons for the rest of Australia, and the world.Liam Phelan, Senior Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of NewcastleKimberley Crofts, Doctoral student, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1665812021-09-22T14:15:31Z2021-09-22T14:15:31ZAccountants can reduce the environmental impact of mining: pointers for South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420455/original/file-20210910-13-1t7p3k3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coal processing in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The South African coal mining industry has a long history, dating back to the late 19th century, and contributes significantly to the economy. The <a href="http://www.coalminingmatters.co.za/">coal sector</a> employs 92,230 people and annual earnings are <a href="https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/sa-mining/coal">R27.9 billion</a> (about US$2 billion). But the industry is causing severe environmental challenges. </p>
<p>For example, Emalahleni, a city in the country’s Mpumalanga province, has been exposed for over a century to the continuous mining of coal. It is <a href="https://ejatlas.org/conflict/coal-pollution-from-eskom-in-emalahleni-mpumalanga-south-africa#:%7E:text=Places%20like%20Emalahleni%20have%20inadequate,diabetes%2C%20birth%20defects%2C%20premature%20deaths">experiencing</a> the sterilisation of land due to underground fires, water pollution, surface collapse, and acidification of topsoil. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/mining-activities-continue-to-dispossess-black-families-in-south-africa-125437">Communities</a> in the vicinity of a mine can experience severe health challenges and might even have to <a href="https://www.bothends.org/uploaded_files/uploadlibraryitem/1case_study_South_Africa_updated.pdf">be relocated</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/air-pollution-temperature-and-respiratory-disease-a-south-african-study-141080">Air pollution, temperature and respiratory disease: a South African study</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>South Africa has environmental and other regulations which mining companies must comply with. The <a href="https://www.iodsa.co.za/page/KingIVReport">King IV</a> report provides background to how companies can operate regarding the economy, environment and society. The <a href="https://www.esi-africa.com/industry-sectors/finance-and-policy/mining-industry-coming-to-terms-with-the-carbon-tax-act/">Carbon Tax Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/national-environmental-management-act">National Environmental Management Act</a> 107 of 1998 are fairly stringent. But the industry still produces acid mine drainage and other waste as part of its daily activities. This has to be managed.</p>
<p>Environmental management has scientific and engineering aspects, of course, but there are also accounting practices which could support greener mining. Management accountants can reduce the environmental footprint of companies while keeping them profitable, by decreasing costs and waste. The original purpose of environmental management accounting was to provide information for internal use. But it can be included in a company’s financial statements and other annual reports for external stakeholders to make informed decisions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-case-for-turning-south-africas-coal-fields-into-a-renewable-energy-hub-138315">The case for turning South Africa's coal fields into a renewable energy hub</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We have been working on a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4897/htm">framework</a> that would guide management accountants in making decisions about these environmental issues. First we came up with a set of propositions about mining and its environmental impacts. Then we surveyed coal mining practitioners to get their views on the propositions.</p>
<p>We found that most of them were unfamiliar with environmental management accounting concepts. They saw various laws as punitive rather than helping to balance company profit and environmental concerns. They also indicated that our new framework would need to emphasise risk management in guiding the decisions of coal mines.</p>
<h2>Environmental management accounting practices</h2>
<p>Environmental management accounting practices are tools that can be used to identify, analyse, manage and reduce environmental costs. They can identify occurrences and activities in mining processes where waste production can be reduced, resulting in cost-cutting opportunities.</p>
<p>These practices include material flow cost accounting, activity-based costing and life cycle costing. The first looks at the flows of materials, energy and water. The second identifies activities that drive costs, those that don’t add value (if the activity is not necessary in the process) and can be reduced. Life cycle costing considers the costs of all activities at the mine from the day it starts operating until the mine closes. It even includes activities after closure if something happens at the mining site that needs to be handled to reduce its environmental footprint.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africas-rural-communities-are-getting-a-raw-deal-from-mining-118464">How South Africa's rural communities are getting a raw deal from mining</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To refine our decision-making framework, we interviewed supervisors, senior managers, general managers, chief executive officers and employees of different mining companies. We wanted to know what kind of information they felt they needed to make decisions on environmental impacts. We also held a focus group to identify associations between the different information components of the framework.</p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/18/4897/htm">found</a> that only 27% of the interviewees were familiar with the concept of environmental management accounting.</p>
<p>But all the focus group participants agreed that reduced water pollution, improved health, and improved costing and decision-making would benefit investors, coal mining employees and the natural environment. They agreed that environmental management accounting would add value for all these stakeholders by providing useful information.</p>
<p>In 2019 a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336128719_An_exploration_of_the_implementation_and_usefulness_of_environmental_management_accounting-_A_comparative_study_between_Australia_and_Sri_Lanka">study</a> comparing Australia and Sri Lanka showed that environmental management accounting was gaining traction in various companies. The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336128719_An_exploration_of_the_implementation_and_usefulness_of_environmental_management_accounting-_A_comparative_study_between_Australia_and_Sri_Lanka">study</a> showed that professional accounting bodies should incorporate it into training programmes to meet industry requirements. They also made the point that this approach to accounting as the basis for decision-making brings new challenges. For example, accountants have to work closely with other departments to track materials and processes.</p>
<p>Our study showed that more training is needed in South Africa. From the interviews it became clear that there is a need for the harmonisation of production and environmental management activities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-ditch-90-of-worlds-coal-and-60-of-oil-and-gas-to-limit-warming-to-1-5-c-experts-167494">Climate change: ditch 90% of world's coal and 60% of oil and gas to limit warming to 1.5°C – experts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our work showed the value of green industrialisation. We hope that more executives with decision-making powers will use the tools of environmental management accounting in future. More case studies in the South African coalmining industry would help to enhance the framework and determine its industrial scalability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huibrecht Margaretha (Breggie) van der Poll receives funding from the National Research Foundation as a C3 Rated researcher.</span></em></p>Environmental management accounting can be used to identify, analyse, manage and reduce environmental costs.Huibrecht Margaretha (Breggie) van der Poll, Professor of Management Accounting, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1675272021-09-09T04:57:15Z2021-09-09T04:57:15ZA promising new dawn is ours for the taking – so let’s stop counting the coal Australia must leave in the ground<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420151/original/file-20210909-27-z41u74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C549%2C5979%2C3458&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03821-8">study out today</a> says the vast majority of Earth’s coal, including 95% of Australia’s, cannot be burned if global warming is to be limited to 1.5°C this century. The findings are undoubtedly true. But examining how much fossil fuel the world can still use is not the question we should be asking.</p>
<p>Instead, the most useful questions are: how do we advance Australia’s economic future outside high-emissions industries? And how can we seize the opportunities presented by the declines of coal, and then gas, rather than watching the economy go underwater as we try to stem an unstoppable tide?</p>
<p>The world is moving away fossil fuels, and there’s nothing Australia can do about it. Racing to dig up and sell whatever fossil fuels we can before the timer stops is not a future-proof strategy. We need to prepare for the change and diversify the economy.</p>
<p>How much coal must remain in the ground is beside the point. Instead, we should grasp this moment – turning it into a positive step for the world community and future generations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy with painted hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420155/original/file-20210909-18-1t2hl5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The key question is, how do we turn this moment into an opportunity?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Neil Hall/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The numbers game</h2>
<p>The new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03821-8%20link">study</a> by researchers at University College London examines how much fossil fuel can still be burned if we hope to keep the global average temperature rises to within 1.5°C – the ambitious end of the Paris Agreement goals. It compares this “budget” with the known stores of coal, oil and gas in various parts of the world. </p>
<p>The study finds the vast majority of remaining fossil fuels must remain in the ground – specifically 89% of coal, 59% of gas and 58% of oil. For Australia, that equates to 95% of our coal reserves and 35% of our gas. </p>
<p>The research is a follow-up to a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14016">well-known 2015 study</a> based on the 2°C warming scenario. Similar findings have also been made in other research.</p>
<p>While it’s long been clear that much of Earth’s fossil fuel deposits must stay in the ground, there are uncertainties around the numbers. These come from varying assumptions about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the exact size of the remaining global <a href="https://carbontracker.org/carbon-budgets-explained/">carbon budget</a> for any particular temperature increase</p></li>
<li><p>how the carbon budget might be distributed between coal, oil and gas (which depends on technology choices and costs)</p></li>
<li><p>the extent of carbon capture and <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage/">storage</a> (or carbon <a href="https://www.iea.org/fuels-and-technologies/carbon-capture-utilisation-and-storage">use</a>) and removal of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere </p></li>
<li><p>how much fossil fuel would be available for extraction. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The study released overnight offers results only from a single model and data set. The results remind us how little time remains to keep using fossil fuels, but we should not focus unduly on the headline numbers the study produced. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-it-is-entirely-possible-for-australia-to-phase-out-thermal-coal-within-a-decade-167366">Yes, it is entirely possible for Australia to phase out thermal coal within a decade</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Vehicle carries coal at mine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420154/original/file-20210909-18-suz1ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s long been clear much of Earth’s coal deposits should stay in the ground.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Griffith/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3 lenses on the end of the fossil fuel age</h2>
<p>Just as the Stone Age didn’t end for a lack of stones, the fossil fuel age won’t end for a lack of coal, gas or oil. </p>
<p>So while humanity is not running out of fossil fuels, we <em>are</em> running out of options for the waste product, carbon dioxide – and running out of time to deal with it.</p>
<p>Countries that produce and export large amounts of fossil fuels must address this undeniable reality. We characterise three different ways they can do this. </p>
<p>The first is the “hell-for-leather” approach: extract, use and sell whatever fossil fuels you can while there’s still a market, and promote the global use of fossil fuels to extend the ride. This is the natural stance for companies focused solely on fossil fuel production. </p>
<p>Some countries that export fossil fuels are pursuing such strategies. In Australia, a statement by federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/pitt/media-releases/coal-industry-has-strong-future-australia">this week</a> can be interpreted along such lines. </p>
<p>In this mindset, remaining fossil fuel deposits should be exploited to the maximum, at whatever cost. It emphasises specific business interests, while defining national interests in narrow and short-sighted terms. </p>
<p>It also disregards the global climate change objective and international relations with countries that emphasise climate concerns. In short, it risks train wrecks down the track. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-world-battles-to-slash-carbon-emissions-australia-considers-paying-dirty-coal-stations-to-stay-open-longer-166814">As the world battles to slash carbon emissions, Australia considers paying dirty coal stations to stay open longer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man in high-vis vest and blue shirt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420157/original/file-20210909-25-1hvgdoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Resources Minister Keith Pitt says the future of Australia’s coal sector is strong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Bunch/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>A second approach is to concede fossil fuels are on a long-term <a href="https://theconversation.com/international-energy-agency-warns-against-new-fossil-fuel-projects-guess-what-australia-did-next-161178">downward trajectory</a>, due to climate change concerns and rapid improvements in clean technologies. It accepts this change is driven by consumers and there is nothing fossil fuel exporters can do about it. </p>
<p>The logical consequence is to prepare for the inevitable decline and cushion the transition. That could include using some revenue from fossil fuels to invest in a socially and environmentally sensitive transition. </p>
<p>Under this approach, the amount of fossil fuel available underground is simply irrelevant. The deposits are redundant – just like all those stones were at the end of the Stone Age. The question of what proportion must remain unexploited is of no particular interest.</p>
<p>A third option is to understand the challenge as a positive one: take the global shift away from fossil fuels as an opportunity to modernise and massively diversify the economy. </p>
<p>Taking this perspective, leaving coal in the ground is a positive step that helps nations and regions evolve in desirable ways and helps the world community, and future generations, deal with climate change. Not mining coal, then, takes on an ethical dimension – perhaps it can be seen as “ethi-coal”.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-already-hit-australia-unless-we-act-now-a-hotter-drier-and-more-dangerous-future-awaits-ipcc-warns-165396">Climate change has already hit Australia. Unless we act now, a hotter, drier and more dangerous future awaits, IPCC warns</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="two boys with arms around each other on cracked earth" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420158/original/file-20210909-27-1uxt8j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The move away from fossil fuels can be seen as an opportunity to help future generations deal with climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Preparing for a post-fossil future</h2>
<p>Whichever lens one chooses to look through, clean technologies <em>will</em> displace the burning of coal, oil and gas. </p>
<p>In Australia, large corporations (and to a lesser extent, some employees and public finances) have done well out of coal and gas. But that’s far from the only way we can derive large export revenues. </p>
<p>Australia is exceptionally well placed to build up an energy and processing industry based on its practically limitless renewable energy potential, coupled with experience with and predisposition towards large resource industries. This could include <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-hydrogen-to-be-truly-clean-it-must-be-made-with-renewables-not-coal-128053">clean hydrogen</a> and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/green-steel-is-hailed-as-the-next-big-thing-in-australian-industry-heres-what-the-hype-is-all-about-160282">green steel</a>. </p>
<p>But to once again become dependent on just a few large industries, such as minerals or energy, should not be the goal here. Rather, we should use the global low-carbon transition as a platform for a large range of new industries. There are many opportunities in new technologies and practices. </p>
<p>So let’s keep our eye on the big picture: diversifying the economy into a broad range of activities with low environmental footprints, underpinned by modern infrastructure, top quality education and a strong social and health system. </p>
<p>Therein lies a desirable and economically sound future for Australia – one where we won’t be worrying one bit about all the coal left in the ground.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Jotzo leads and has led research projects funded by a variety of funders. None present a conflict of interest on this topic.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Howden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world is moving away fossil fuels, and there’s nothing Australia can do about it. Racing to dig up and sell whatever fossil fuels we can before the timer stops is not a future-proof strategy.Frank Jotzo, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy and Head of Energy, Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National UniversityMark Howden, Director, ANU Institute for Climate, Energy and Disaster Solutions, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584482021-04-07T02:43:20Z2021-04-07T02:43:20ZIs Malcolm Turnbull the only Liberal who understands economics and climate science – or the only one who’ll talk about it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393696/original/file-20210407-19-6y4tzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=130%2C92%2C5005%2C2764&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yesterday, former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull was unceremoniously <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/malcolm-turnbull-dumped-as-chair-of-nsw-climate-change-advisory-board/29f2f8c9-537c-4745-a7d1-4ddf8cb2aa3b">dumped</a> as chair of the New South Wales government’s climate advisory board, just a week after being offered the role. His crime? He questioned the wisdom of building new coal mines when the existing ones are already floundering.</p>
<p>No-one would suggest building new hotels in Cairns to help that city’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-19/coronavirus-queensland-regional-tourism-cairns-hotels-reef/12158486">struggling</a> tourism industry. But among modern Liberals it’s patently heresy to ask how rushing to green light <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/surge-in-new-coal-mine-proposals-in-nsw-triggers-fresh-calls-for-coal-moratorium/">11 proposed coal mines</a> in the Hunter Valley helps the struggling coal industry.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/glencore-to-suspend-hunter-valley-coal-mines-as-china-restricts-imports-20200807-p55jlw.html">Coal mines</a> in the Hunter are already operating <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/coal-mines-rail-and-ports-slowed-by-rains-20210322-p57d0g">well below capacity</a> and have been <a href="https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2160532-australias-hvo-coal-mine-cuts-workforce">laying off workers</a> in the face of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-21/international-energy-agency-says-coal-demand-peaked-in-2013/13001140">declining</a> world demand for coal, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth">plummeting</a> renewable energy prices and trade sanctions <a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-about-the-trade-spat-coal-is-passe-in-much-of-china-and-thats-a-bigger-problem-for-australia-153300">imposed</a> by China. The problem isn’t a shortage of supply, but an abundance. </p>
<p>The simple truth is building new coal mines will simply make matters worse, especially for workers in existing coal mines that have already been mothballed or had their output scaled back.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="coal mine in the Hunter Valley" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393697/original/file-20210407-19-1wkhbxj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Turnbull has called for a moratorium on new coal mines in the Hunter Valley, such as the one pictured above.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It gets worse. Once an enormous, dusty, noisy open cut coal mine is approved, the agriculture, wine, tourism and horse breeding industries – all major employers in the Hunter Valley – are reluctant to invest nearby. While building new coal mines hurts workers in existing coal mines, the mere act of approving new coal mines harms investment in job creation in the <a href="https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/5889426/report-time-is-up-for-coal-in-the-hunter/">industries</a> that offer the Hunter a smooth transition from coal.</p>
<p>The NSW planning department doesn’t have a plan for how many new coal mines are needed to meet world demand. Nor does it have a plan for how much expansion of rail and port infrastructure is required to meet the output of all the new mines being proposed. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-about-the-trade-spat-coal-is-passe-in-much-of-china-and-thats-a-bigger-problem-for-australia-153300">Forget about the trade spat – coal is passé in much of China, and that's a bigger problem for Australia</a>
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<p>That’s why my colleagues and I <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/one-step-forward-two-steps-back/">recently called for a moratorium</a> on new coal mines in the Hunter until such plans were made explicit. Just as you wouldn’t approve 1,000 new homes in a town where the sewerage system was already at capacity, it makes no sense to approve 11 new coal mines in a region that couldn’t export that much coal if it tried.</p>
<p>But if there’s one thing that defines the debate about coal in Australia, its that it makes no sense. </p>
<p>Just as it made no sense for then-treasurer Scott Morrison to wave a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this">lump of coal</a> around in parliament in 2017, it makes no sense for right-wing commentators to pretend approving new mines will help create jobs in coal mining. And it makes no sense for the National Party to ignore the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33647189">pleas of farmers</a> to protect their land from the damage coal mines do.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Scott Morrison with a lump of coal to Question Time in 2017." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393698/original/file-20210407-13-1btbj1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Scott Morrison took a lump of coal to Question Time in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>On the surface, Turnbull’s support for a pause on approving new mines while a plan is developed is old-fashioned centrism. It protects existing coal workers from new, <a href="https://im-mining.com/2018/07/26/australia-coal-mine-automation-increase-post-2025-says-woodmac/">highly automated</a> mines, it protects farmers and it should make those concerned with climate change at least a bit happy. Win. Win. Win.</p>
<p>But there’s no room for a sensible centre in the Australian coal debate. And when someone even suggests the industry might not be set to grow, its army of loyal parliamentary and media supporters swing into action.</p>
<p>Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JoelFitzgibbonMP/posts/4006442726068264">said</a> Turnbull “wants to make the Upper Hunter a coal-mine-free zone”. The Nationals’ Matt Canavan <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/turnbull-calls-for-halt-on-new-coal-mines-inquiry-on-rehabilitation-funds-20210331-p57fji.html">suggested</a> stopping coal exports was “an inhumane policy to keep people in poverty”. The head of the NSW Minerals Council <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/turnbull-calls-for-halt-on-new-coal-mines-inquiry-on-rehabilitation-funds-20210331-p57fji.html">suggested</a> 12,000 jobs were at risk.</p>
<p>But of course, the opposite is true. Turnbull’s proposal to protect existing coal workers from competition from new mines would save jobs, not threaten them. He didn’t suggest coal mines be shut down tomorrow, or even early. And, given existing coal mines are running so far below capacity, his call has no potential to impact coal exports.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-politicians-need-not-fear-queenslanders-are-no-more-attached-to-coal-than-the-rest-of-australia-148993">Labor politicians need not fear: Queenslanders are no more attached to coal than the rest of Australia</a>
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<img alt="Coal workers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393699/original/file-20210407-21-ik86mj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Opening new coal mines won’t help save the jobs of existing coal workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Predictably, the Murdoch press ran a relentlessly misleading campaign in support of the coal industry and in <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=DTWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailytelegraph.com.au%2Fnews%2Fjames-morrow-climate-warrior-malcolm-turnbull-wasnt-always-a-clean-green-anticoal-machine%2Fnews-story%2Fda8cf549cd63501a29e666a74a27fde7&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium">opposition</a> to their least favourite Liberal PM. But surprisingly, the NSW government <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/turnbulls-coal-comments-sealed-his-fate-c-2532115">rolled over</a> in record time. </p>
<p>While the government might think appeasing the coal industry will play well among some older regional voters, they must know such kowtowing is a gift to independents such as Zali Steggall, and a fundamental threat to inner-city Liberals such as Dave Sharma, Jason Falinski and Trent Zimmerman.</p>
<p>The decision to dump Turnbull might have bought NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian some respite from attacks from the Daily Telegraph. But such denial of economics and climate science will provide no respite for existing coal workers in shuttered coal mines or the agriculture and tourism industry that is looking to expand.</p>
<p>No doubt the National Party are pleased with their latest scalp. But it must be remembered this is the party that last year wanted to wage a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nsw-koala-wars-showed-one-thing-the-nationals-appear-ill-equipped-to-help-rural-australia-146000">war against koalas</a> on behalf of property developers. Such political instincts might help the Nationals fend off the <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6246848669001">threat</a> from One Nation in regional areas but it does nothing to retain votes in leafy Liberal strongholds that deliver most Liberal seats.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arent-we-in-a-drought-the-australian-black-coal-industry-uses-enough-water-for-over-5-million-people-137591">Aren't we in a drought? The Australian black coal industry uses enough water for over 5 million people</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Denniss is the Chief Economist of The Australia Institute. He was a senior strategic advisor to Australian Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown and Chief of Staff to Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja, former Leader of the Australian Democrats.</span></em></p>Among modern Liberals it’s patently heresy to ask how rushing to green light 11 proposed coal mines in the Hunter Valley helps the struggling coal industry.Richard Denniss, Adjunct Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541732021-02-05T01:31:22Z2021-02-05T01:31:22ZA major coal mine expansion was knocked back today, but where’s the line in the sand?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382641/original/file-20210204-16-17k1i15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1195%2C793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> CLIMATE CAMP 09</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An independent expert panel today <a href="https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/projects/2020/10/dendrobium-extension-project-ssd-8194">rejected</a> a proposal to expand the operations of the <a href="https://www.south32.net/our-business/australia/illawarra-metallurgical-coal/dendrobium-mine">Dendrobium coal mine</a> under Sydney’s drinking water catchment. This is a significant and welcome decision. However, flawed environmental laws that enabled the proposal to get so far must be overhauled.</p>
<p>The mine’s proponents had been seeking to <a href="https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/project/9696">extract</a> 78 million additional tonnes of coal out to 2048. The New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) had recommended the mine be approved. The backing came despite grave concerns over the mine’s impact on drinking water supplies.</p>
<p>We are experts in environmental regulation and one of us, Pete Dupen, is a former mining manager for the state government agency WaterNSW. Our research shows the damage mining causes to Sydney’s water supplies is unsustainable, and regulation in Australia has largely failed to set firm limits on cumulative damage to the environment.</p>
<p>The problem is rife in both state and <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/final-report">federal</a> laws, and must urgently be addressed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man stands at dam edge" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382642/original/file-20210204-24-u5qggb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mine extension was rejected due to concerns over damage to water supplies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Baker/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Unacceptable’ damage</h2>
<p>NSW’s Independent Planning Commission (<a href="https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/projects/2020/10/dendrobium-extension-project-ssd-8194">IPC</a>) was tasked with assessing the Dendrobium mine proposal due to the high number of objections received.</p>
<p>The multinational company that owns the mine, South32, wanted to extend underground longwall mining at the operation until 2048.</p>
<p>Coal from Dendrobium, located west of Wollongong, is used in steel-making in Australia and overseas. South32 argued the expansion would deliver a net economic benefit of A$2.8 billion. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/be-worried-when-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-support-current-environmental-laws-138526">Be worried when fossil fuel lobbyists support current environmental laws</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The extension would have allowed 78 million tonnes of coal to be extracted from two new areas comprising 21 “long wall” panels, 18 of which would have been more than 300 metres wide. </p>
<p>The panels would have been dug out from beneath a so-called “Special Area” – land where, under law, stored water must be protected and ecological integrity maintained. The area covered by the proposed expansion supplies drinking water to much of Greater Sydney.</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/projects/2020/10/dendrobium-extension-project-ssd-8194">verdict</a> released on Friday, the IPC said the project would cause “unacceptable” damage and should be refused.</p>
<p>Among the reasons for the decision were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the risk of significant “subsidence” or sinking of the ground’s surface resulting from the longwall mine design. This would degrade 25 watercourses and swamps </p></li>
<li><p>potentially significant surface water losses into the groundwater system, damaging ecological processes and contribute to increased concentrations of metals in drinking water</p></li>
<li><p>the impact of past and existing longwall mining in the catchment, including the (as yet unquantified) loss of surface water flows from some sections of rivers and streams</p></li>
<li><p>uncertainty around managing mine water inflow (surface waters permanently diverted underground) after mine closure.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1357452147810467844"}"></div></p>
<h2>No line in the sand</h2>
<p>Thankfully in this case, the IPC took into account cumulative damage to water supplies when making its decision. But as precedent shows, that consideration is not a given.</p>
<p>Australian laws tend to focus on the impacts of individual projects in isolation. Crucially, they fail to use clear thresholds of unacceptable cumulative environmental impact – a line in the sand, beyond which damage will not be tolerated.</p>
<p>The failing is reflected in the recommendation by NSW planning officials that the Dendrobium extension be approved. If cumulative damage was properly considered earlier, the proposal would have been scuppered years ago.</p>
<p>Climate change and drought have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-drought-is-affecting-water-supply-in-australias-capital-cities-127909">crippled</a> urban water supplies in recent years. Yet underground coal mines have been allowed to eat away at Sydney’s water catchments, Pac-Man like, for decades. </p>
<p>Our research shows existing coal mines in the catchments of Sydney’s “Metropolitan Special Area” have, or will, divert <a href="https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/resources/pac/media/files/pac/projects/2020/10/dendrobium-extension-project-ssd-8194/public-submissions/environmental-defenders-office-on-behalf-of-protect-our-water-alliance/201215-peter-dupen.pdf">450 billion litres</a> of drinking water into underground fractures. That’s almost <a href="http://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/39/when-dam-size-matters/">as much</a> water as is contained in Sydney Harbour. </p>
<p>A NSW government-appointed <a href="https://www.chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/independent-reports/mining-in-the-sydney-drinking-water-catchment">expert panel</a> recently examined the risk mining activities posed to the water quantity in Greater Sydney’s water catchments. Among its <a href="https://chiefscientist.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/281732/IEPMC-Part-2-Report.pdf">recommendations</a> was an interagency taskforce to determine how much water loss due to mining was acceptable.</p>
<p>Yet even as the IPC assessed the Dendrobium proposal, this question had not yet been answered. This is despite the NSW government in April last year <a href="https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/News/2020/Stronger-Protection-for-Sydneys-water-catchment-following-extensive-review">accepting</a> all 50 of the panel’s recommendations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aerial view of Warragamba Dam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382643/original/file-20210204-18-gvof2y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cumulative damage to Sydney’s drinking water supplies is not being properly addressed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/mp/01/getContent?AttachRef=SSD-8194%2120201102T024456.148%20GMT">draft conditions</a> for the expansion, set by DPIE, would not have addressed cumulative impacts before approval was granted.</p>
<p>Several years ago, WaterNSW developed cumulative impact criteria to be applied to mining developments before approval. But the document remains a draft and has not been published, for reasons unknown.</p>
<h2>A national problem</h2>
<p>The problems we raise are not isolated to NSW environment law. At a federal level, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act needs an urgent overhaul.</p>
<p>The Morrison government last week released an <a href="https://epbcactreview.environment.gov.au/resources/final-report">independent review</a> of the laws by Professor Graeme Samuel. Among the report’s many scathing criticisms were that “cumulative impacts on the environment are not systematically considered”.</p>
<p>Samuel said Commonwealth environment authorities assess development proposals only when they meet certain criteria. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-major-report-excoriated-australias-environment-laws-sussan-leys-response-is-confused-and-risky-154254">A major report excoriated Australia's environment laws. Sussan Ley's response is confused and risky</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even when the Commonwealth does scrutinise a proposal, decisions are made only on a project-by-project basis, rather than as part of an “integrated system of environmental management that ensure cumulative impacts are well managed”, Samuel said.</p>
<p>Weaknesses in Australian federal and state laws, and enforcement, often means cumulative effects are not considered <a href="http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2-Nelson.pdf">on paper</a> or in practice. </p>
<p>For example, the Victorian Auditor-General <a href="https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/20200617-Endangered-Grasslands-report.pdf">recently found</a> measures designed to mitigate the cumulative effect of residential developments on Melbourne’s urban fringe were not being implemented.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Land cleared for development" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381282/original/file-20210129-21-sufsex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Across Australia, the law does not require decision-makers to adequately consider cumulative effects of development.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shoring up our drinking water</h2>
<p>Few environmental problems are more pressing than permanent impacts on a major city’s water supply. But protecting water resources from cumulative harm requires the following </p>
<ul>
<li><p>well-defined thresholds, set with rational justification and able to be changed as new information arises</p></li>
<li><p>robust measurements to assess if thresholds are being approached or exceeded</p></li>
<li><p>clear conditions for developers that require concrete actions if thresholds are crossed</p></li>
<li><p>transparency and trust in how the decisions are being made.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Clearly, the law and associated planning processes must consider the accumulating damage stressing the natural world. Otherwise, we may reach irreversible tipping points without even realising it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-first-mining-standard-must-protect-people-and-hold-powerful-companies-to-account-144285">World-first mining standard must protect people and hold powerful companies to account</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pete Dupen received funding from Protect Our Water Alliance to prepare a submission to the IPC, under instruction from the NSW Environmental Defenders’ Office.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Louise Nelson receives funding from the Australian Research Council (#DE180101154 'Regulating Cumulative Environmental Effects: Designing Global Best Practice'). She is also a director of Bush Heritage Australia and a member of the Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority.</span></em></p>The damage mining causes to Sydney’s water supplies is unsustainable, and the law has failed to stop it.Pete Dupen, PhD Student, University of Technology SydneyRebecca Louise Nelson, Associate Professor in Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1538142021-01-26T14:42:11Z2021-01-26T14:42:11ZKeystone XL legal risks highlight dangers of putting investors before climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380675/original/file-20210126-19-vnh4oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=297%2C45%2C4705%2C3277&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrate in Omaha, Neb., on Nov. 1, 2017. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP/Nati Harnik)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The chickens have come home to roost for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Kenney bet <a href="https://theenergymix.com/2021/01/22/humiliated-kenney-demands-trade-sanctions-could-sell-pipeline-for-scrap-as-tc-shuts-down-keystone-construction/">around $1.5 billion of public money on a very risky prospect</a> — the highly controversial Keystone XL pipeline. </p>
<p>U.S. President Joe Biden, to the surprise of no one but Kenney, followed through on an election promise and <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/">cancelled a key permit for the pipeline</a> on the first day of his administration. Now the premier is scrambling for a way to recoup some of Alberta’s losses, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/kenney-trudeau-letter-keystone-xl-1.5883751">and he sees a trade agreement as offering some hope</a>.</p>
<p>The former North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) contained a chapter on investment that allowed foreign investors to sue governments in international arbitration. The owner of Keystone XL — TC Energy (previously TransCanada) — <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-25/transcanada-files-15b-nafta-claim-on-keystone-xl-rejection">used NAFTA to launch a US$15 billion lawsuit</a> in 2016 after President Barack Obama cancelled the project. </p>
<p>At the time, some legal experts thought the company had a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/01/08/transcanada-is-suing-the-u-s-over-obamas-rejection-of-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-the-u-s-might-lose/">reasonable chance of winning</a>. We will never know, because the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/transcanada-nafta-lawsuit-suspended-1.4003525">case was dropped</a> when President Donald Trump indicated he was willing to let the project proceed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Donald Trump flanked by other lawmakers in the Oval Office of the White House." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380550/original/file-20210125-21-wibiib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Donald Trump approves a permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline on Mar. 24, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This time may be different if TC Energy chooses to proceed with a claim. NAFTA has been replaced by a new agreement — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Unlike NAFTA, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2019.100004">USMCA does not permit Canadian investors to sue the U.S. government</a> (or American investors to sue the Canadian government). </p>
<p>Legacy claims for investments that had occurred prior to the USMCA coming into force are permitted until 2023. But TC Energy’s <a href="https://financialpost.com/commodities/tc-energy-and-alberta-face-long-odds-if-they-sue-u-s-government-over-cancelled-keystone-xl">claim may now be weaker</a> because the permit issued by the Trump administration explicitly stated that it could be rescinded, essentially at the president’s whim. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, many investors have proceeded with claims on the basis of much weaker cases. Investors bet on positive outcomes in arbitration, as much as they bet on governments not taking action to halt catastrophic climate change. This is because the anticipated rewards, in both instances, are high.</p>
<h2>Risky business</h2>
<p>One example of an incredibly dubious investor claim is the one launched by <a href="https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?CaseNo=UNCT/20/3">Westmoreland Mining Holdings against Canada</a> in 2018. Ironically, this case concerns action that the previous Alberta government took to address climate change. </p>
<p>Alberta’s <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/climate-coal-electricity.aspx">2015 Climate Leadership Plan included a provincial phaseout of coal power</a>, which left Westmoreland — an American coal mining firm — without a future market for its coal. <a href="http://icsidfiles.worldbank.org/icsid/ICSIDBLOBS/OnlineAwards/C8473/DS14132_En.pdf">The company is arguing</a> that Alberta’s failure to provide Westmoreland with “transition payments,” like those that power companies received, is a breach of NAFTA. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fossil-fuel-era-is-coming-to-an-end-but-the-lawsuits-are-just-beginning-107512">The fossil fuel era is coming to an end, but the lawsuits are just beginning</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The case is ongoing and outcomes of arbitration are very difficult to predict. But it demonstrates a concerning trend, as do <a href="https://www.ejiltalk.org/risky-business-unipers-potential-investor-state-dispute-against-the-dutch-coal-ban/">other cases that have emerged in Europe</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://exxonknew.org">Fossil fuel companies have been well aware</a> of the damage their industry causes for decades, yet they have <a href="https://desmog.co.uk/2021/01/15/api-american-petroleum-institute-oil-industry-public-climate-denial-campaign-1980">exerted substantial efforts to try to slow climate action</a>. They have taken bets on risky investments in the hopes that governments would continue to dither as the planet burns. Now that climate action is starting to ramp up, they want to be “compensated” for their losses. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380560/original/file-20210125-23-nq4ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, announces he’s rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline because he does not believe it serves the national interest, on Nov. 6, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A global problem</h2>
<p>Climate activists may be tempted to dismiss the threat that investment treaties pose to action on climate change. After all, the Canadian and U.S. governments have the resources to rigorously defend themselves in arbitration and they often win. Indeed, the U.S. has never lost a case. Furthermore, governments already subsidize the industry to the tune of <a href="https://www.iisd.org/publications/g20-scorecard">hundreds of billions of dollars per year</a>, so is a few more billion in “compensation” really going to make much of a difference?</p>
<p>The problem is that climate change is a global issue and so too is the <a href="https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements">coverage of investment treaties</a>. Many of the fossil fuel reserves that need to <a href="https://carbontracker.org/terms/unburnable-carbon/">stay in the ground</a> and assets that need to be <a href="https://carbontracker.org/terms/stranded-assets/">stranded</a> in order for us to remain below 1.5C of warming are <a href="https://energymonitor.ai/policy/international-treaties/why-investor-lawsuits-could-slow-the-energy-transition">in the Global South</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380562/original/file-20210125-19-11gxy3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number and percentage of foreign-owned coal plants protected by at least one treaty with investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in place, by host state.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pubs.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/17660IIED.pdf">(Kyla Tienhaara and Lorenzo Cotula)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, a large number of planned and newly operating <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants">coal-fired power plants</a> are in countries like Indonesia and Vietnam. A <a href="https://www.iied.org/international-treaties-threaten-affordability-climate-action-new-report">recent study</a> found that many of these plants are protected by investment treaties. These countries have fewer resources for fighting claims and a much poorer record of success in arbitration. </p>
<p>A real concern is that even the threat of a big investor claim <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/transnational-environmental-law/article/regulatory-chill-in-a-warming-world-the-threat-to-climate-policy-posed-by-investorstate-dispute-settlement/C1103F92D8A9386D33679A649FEF7C84">could be enough to dissuade</a> one of these governments from taking action to phase out coal.</p>
<h2>A global solution</h2>
<p>We need climate action to happen everywhere, not just in the countries where governments can afford to fight legal challenges. This is one of the reasons why many are calling for radical reform or complete abolition of international investment treaties. </p>
<p>In Europe, campaigners are making headway on efforts <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/10/28/eu-tries-stop-fossil-fuel-companies-suing-states-climate-action/">to remove protection for fossil fuel investments from the Energy Charter Treaty</a>. Countries like <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V19/072/51/PDF/V1907251.pdf?OpenElement">South Africa</a> are pushing for investment treaties to be aligned with the Paris Agreement and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Researchers have also suggested that the problems with investment treaties could be addressed with a <a href="https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/green-new-deal-ten-year-window-to-reshape-international-economic-law/">Global Green New Deal</a>.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the Canadian public should make it clear to TC Energy and Jason Kenney that they should drop any plans to pursue a legal challenge, and own up to the fact that they alone are responsible for their own poor investment decisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyla Tienhaara receives funding from the Government of Canada through the Canada Research Chair Program and through SSHRC. She occasionally collaborates on research projects with non-profit environmental organizations. </span></em></p>The threat of a large lawsuit could be enough to discourage some countries from taking action on climate change.Kyla Tienhaara, Canada Research Chair in Economy and Environment, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1489932020-10-30T05:56:26Z2020-10-30T05:56:26ZLabor politicians need not fear: Queenslanders are no more attached to coal than the rest of Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366597/original/file-20201030-14-egcve5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C262%2C1431%2C814&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Facebook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s written into electoral folklore that Labor was wiped out at the 2019 federal election because Queensland didn’t like its position on coal. As the story goes, Labor’s lukewarm support for the Adani coal mine and its ambitious climate policies antagonised Queensland’s mining communities and cemented another Coalition term. </p>
<p>But our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2020.1810376?scroll=top&needAccess=true">recent research</a> casts doubt on this conventional wisdom. Our findings challenge claims that the issue of new coal mines in Queensland was largely to blame for Labor’s election loss.</p>
<p>We examined how support for coal mines was linked to voting at the last federal election. We found Queensland voters supported new coal mines, and this was definitely a factor in the federal election. But the influence of coal mines as an election issue in Queensland was similar to that in most other mainland states.</p>
<p>Queenslanders head to the polls tomorrow to decide the state election. Throughout the campaign, the Palaszczuk Labor government has vocally backed expansion of the resources industry – but our research suggests the issue will not necessarily decide the election result.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Annastacia Palaszczuk being heckled" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366630/original/file-20201030-14-1etqezn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annastacia Palaszczuk has strongly backed the Queensland resources industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Darren England</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A shock loss</h2>
<p>After Labor lost the election in May 2019, many analysts and commentators – not to mention the party itself – were left scratching their heads. Labor had been thumped in what was billed as the climate change election, despite its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-07/climate-change-federal-election-morrison-shorten-policies-votes/11084580?nw=0">policy</a> on cutting greenhouse gas pollution being far more ambitious than the Coalition’s.</p>
<p>Labor had <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/labor-divided-on-climate-policy-after-absolute-carnage-at-the-election-20190524-p51qxi.html">pledged</a> to cut Australia’s emissions by 45% between 2005 and 2030. It wanted renewable energy to form half the electricity mix by 2030 and would have implemented an emissions trading-type scheme to limit pollution from industry.</p>
<p>During the campaign, Labor was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/feb/24/labors-fence-sitting-on-adani-has-become-a-double-backflip">accused of</a> fence-sitting on the Adani coal mine. Leader Bill Shorten had stopped short of saying it shouldn’t proceed, instead insisting it should stack up environmentally and financially, and should not receive Commonwealth funding.</p>
<p>On election night, Labor received an electoral walloping in Queensland, and its messaging on coal and climate was widely blamed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-polling-shows-79-of-aussies-care-about-climate-change-so-why-doesnt-the-government-listen-148726">New polling shows 79% of Aussies care about climate change. So why doesn't the government listen?</a>
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<p>Several <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/one-word-that-sums-up-labors-election-disaster-in-queensland/news-story/79f0adfb76eea5a0c0210d038f66b2ca">commentators</a>, and even Coalition MPs, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-18/election-result-sees-peter-dutton-win-dickson/11107396">said</a> the government owed its re-election to a convoy of anti-Adani protesters, led by former Greens leader Bob Brown, which travelled through Queensland and purportedly alienated voters.</p>
<p>While the Coalition strongly supported the construction of new coal mines, Labor struggled to articulate its position – wedged between its blue-collar base in regional areas, and urban voters concerned about the environment.</p>
<p>After the election, Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/joel-fitzgibbon-says-he-warned-against-labor-s-coal-message-20190520-p51pa0.html">conceded</a> Labor’s positioning on the Adani mine overlooked the importance of investment and jobs, and left coal miners worried.</p>
<p>But does the empirical evidence support the view that Labor lost Queensland – and the election – over the issue of coal? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bill Shorten and wife Chloe Shorten" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366632/original/file-20201030-21-11kxq5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Shorten’s election defeat was largely attributed to the Queensland coal issue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Crossling/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our surprise findings</h2>
<p>To answer this questions, we examined data from a 2019 national survey, the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (<a href="https://dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataverse.xhtml?alias=CSES">CSES</a>). The data indicated 46% of Australians supported the construction of new coal mines, and 52% were against. </p>
<p>On average, people who favoured new coal mines tended to be Coalition supporters, less likely to have a tertiary education, more likely to be men than women and were older than average. In contrast, those who accept that human-driven climate change is occurring <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2019.1696853">tend to be</a> tertiary-educated Greens or Labor supporters. They are more likely to be women than men and are younger than average. </p>
<p>Support for new coal mines declined as interest in politics increased in NSW and Victoria. Yet in Queensland and (to a lesser extent) Western Australia, the pattern was very different. In these so-called “mining states”, support for new coal mines increased with political interest. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-this-queensland-election-is-different-states-are-back-at-the-forefront-of-political-attention-148260">Why this Queensland election is different — states are back at the forefront of political attention</a>
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<p>What’s more, as interest in politics increased among Labor identifiers, support for new coal mines decreased. However as political interest increased among Coalition identifiers, support for new mines increased. </p>
<p>These results suggest coal mines influenced voting behaviour in regional and remote areas of Queensland in the 2019 election. </p>
<p>However, our research also suggests the issue was no greater a factor for voters in Queensland than in other states. Those who supported new mines were more likely to vote for the Coalition than for Labor. But the association between new coal mines and voting was not stronger in Queensland than in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia or Western Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Coal mine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/366631/original/file-20201030-24-8wez3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queenslanders support for new coal mines is not greater than anywhere else in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Dave Hunt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Labor should not abandon climate ambitions</h2>
<p>Just days after federal Labor’s 2019 electoral rout in Queensland, Palaszczuk swung into action. Obviously fearing for the electoral prospects of her own government, she <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/adani-approvals-removal-environment-department/11138140">ordered</a> state officials to give a “definitive timeframe” on approvals for the Adani mine within days.</p>
<p>The Queensland state election campaign has been dominated by the issues of economic recovery, job creation and infrastructure. Early in the campaign, the Palaszczuk government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-29/palaszczuk-government-approves-olive-downs-coal-mine-bowen-basin/12713298">signed off</a> on a new metallurgical coal mine in the Bowen Basin, further affirming its support for Queensland’s resources industry. Climate action, and the need to move away from coal, has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/14/queensland-transition-to-renewables-would-generate-almost-10000-jobs-analysis-shows">mentioned</a> in the campaign, but it’s not at the fore. </p>
<p>Federal Labor is still struggling to regroup after its election loss. It has not revealed the emissions reduction targets it will take to the next federal election, and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-backs-new-gas-fields-and-pipelines-in-bid-to-end-climate-fight-20201030-p56a28.html">reportedly</a> this month resolved to support the Morrison government in developing new gas reserves.</p>
<p>But at both a state and federal level, Labor should not hasten to back fossil fuels, nor should it abandon an ambitious climate policy agenda. The issue of new coal mines may not be a huge election decider in Queensland after all.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/china-just-stunned-the-world-with-its-step-up-on-climate-action-and-the-implications-for-australia-may-be-huge-147268">China just stunned the world with its step-up on climate action – and the implications for Australia may be huge</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Tranter receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kerrie Foxwell-Norton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Queenslanders head to the polls tomorrow. The Palaszczuk Labor government has vocally backed the resources industry – but our research suggests the issue will not decide the election result.Bruce Tranter, Professor of Sociology, University of TasmaniaKerrie Foxwell-Norton, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1415312020-07-02T20:09:40Z2020-07-02T20:09:40Z45,000 renewables jobs are Australia’s for the taking – but how many will go to coal workers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345191/original/file-20200702-2702-13hn8wv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C5163%2C3470&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the global renewables transition accelerates, the future for coal regions has become a big worry. This raises an important question: can renewables create the right jobs in the right places to employ former coal workers?</p>
<p>According to our <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/institute-sustainable-futures/our-research/energy-futures/renewable-energy-employment-australia">new research</a>, the answer in many cases is “yes”. Renewable energy jobs provide a good match for existing coal jobs across a range of blue and white-collar occupations, including construction and project managers, engineers, electricians, site administrators and mechanical technicians. </p>
<p>But about one-third of coal workers, such as drillers and machine operators, cannot simply switch over to renewables jobs. So as our economy pivots to renewables, planning and investment is needed to help coal regions survive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345193/original/file-20200702-2692-2mr6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some renewables jobs could be filled by coal workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Wimbourne/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Renewables jobs: a snapshot</h2>
<p>Our research, commissioned by the Clean Energy Council, is <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/institute-sustainable-futures/our-research/energy-futures/renewable-energy-employment-australia">the first large-scale survey of renewable energy employment</a> in Australia.</p>
<p>We surveyed more than 450 Australian renewable energy businesses, covering large scale wind, solar and hydro, rooftop solar and batteries. We wanted to find out how many people were employed, and in what jobs. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-devotion-to-coal-has-come-at-a-huge-cost-we-need-the-government-to-change-course-urgently-140841">Australia's devotion to coal has come at a huge cost. We need the government to change course, urgently</a>
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<p>We then projected employment until 2035 using <a href="https://www.aemo.com.au/-/media/Files/Electricity/NEM/Planning_and_Forecasting/ISP/2019/Draft-2020-Integrated-System-Plan.pdf">three scenarios</a> for the future of the electricity market, developed by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO).</p>
<p>Our results suggest renewable energy can be a major source of jobs in the next 15 years. But the trajectories are very different depending on government COVID-19 stimulus measures and wider energy policy.</p>
<h2>Policy crossroads</h2>
<p>We found the renewable energy sector currently employs about 26,000 people. Temporary construction and installation jobs now comprise 75% of the renewable energy labour market, but as the sector grows, this will change (more on that later).</p>
<p>Australia’s renewable energy target was reached last year, and has not been replaced. According to the <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/mar/renewable-energy-investment-in-australia.html">Reserve Bank of Australia</a> this caused renewables investment to fall by 50% last year compared to 2018. Under a “central” scenario where these policies continued, 11,000 renewable jobs would be lost by 2022. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345197/original/file-20200702-2674-ww84u5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Under the right policies, there could be an average of 35,000 renewables jobs annually in Australia until 2035.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Buholzer/Reuters</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>We then examined a “step change” scenario where Australian policy settings were in line with meeting the Paris climate agreement. This would create a jobs boom: renewable energy employment would grow to 45,000 by 2025 and average around 35,000 jobs each year to 2035. Up to two-thirds are in regional areas.</p>
<p>Under all scenarios, job growth is strongest in rooftop solar and wind. Most are in the construction and installation phase, comprising both ongoing and project-based jobs in trades, as well as technicians and labourers. But by 2035, as many as half of renewable energy jobs could be ongoing jobs in operation and maintenance. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/people-need-to-see-the-benefits-from-local-renewable-energy-projects-and-that-means-jobs-138433">People need to see the benefits from local renewable energy projects, and that means jobs</a>
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<p>Renewable energy jobs will be higher than our projections. We excluded employment areas such as building electricity transmission networks, bioenergy, professional services, renewable hydrogen, growth in minerals needed for renewable energy, and jobs in heavy industry such as “green” steel.</p>
<h2>Renewables vs coal jobs</h2>
<p>All up, coal mining in Australia employs about 40,000 people. As mentioned above, renewable energy jobs could grow to 45,000 by 2025 – and more once other sectors are included.</p>
<p>Australia’s renewable energy industry already employs considerably more people than the 10,500 working in the domestic coal sector – mostly thermal coal mining and power generation. </p>
<p>About 75% of coal mined in Australia is <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2019/sep/the-changing-global-market-for-australian-coal.html">exported</a>. About 24,000 people work in thermal coal mining for both domestic use and export – slightly fewer than the current renewable energy workforce. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344692/original/file-20200630-103673-yokyxv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employment in renewable energy and coal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>New renewables jobs in coal regions</h2>
<p>Around two-thirds of renewable energy jobs could be created in regional areas. These would be distributed more widely than coal sector jobs. </p>
<p>The leading coal mining states, NSW and Queensland, have the biggest share of renewable energy jobs under all scenarios. </p>
<p>AEMO has identified “renewable energy zones” where most large-scale renewable energy is expected to be located. In both NSW and Queensland, some of these zones overlap with the coal workforce. In NSW, the Central West zone could also create employment in the Hunter region. In general, though, many renewable energy jobs will be located in other regions and the capital cities.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/really-australia-its-not-that-hard-10-reasons-why-renewable-energy-is-the-future-130459">Really Australia, it's not that hard: 10 reasons why renewable energy is the future</a>
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<p>In terms of occupations, there is overlap between coal and renewable energy. These include construction and project managers, engineers, electricians, mechanical trades, office managers and contract administrators and drivers.</p>
<p>The timing and location of these renewables jobs will influence whether they can be a source of alternative jobs for coal workers. Re-training of coal workers would also be required. </p>
<p>But there is no direct job overlap for the semi-skilled machine operators such as drillers, which account for more than one-third of the coal workforce.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344685/original/file-20200630-103688-1fhvki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Renewable Energy Zones and coal mining employment in Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344683/original/file-20200630-103668-1jclsd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Renewable energy zones and coal mining employment in NSW.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Planning for the decline</h2>
<p>Renewable energy can meaningfully help in the transition for coal regions. But it won’t replace all lost coal jobs, and planning and investment is needed to avoid social and economic harm.</p>
<p>Coal regions need industry development plans and investment to diversify their economies to other industries, including renewables. Almost half our coal workers are aged under 40, so Australia will not be able to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-transition-from-coal-4-lessons-for-australia-from-around-the-world-115558">follow Germany and Spain’s lead</a> by relying on early retirement schemes.</p>
<p>At some point, demand for our coal exports will collapse – be it due to the falling cost of renewables, or policies to address climate change. If we don’t start preparing now, the consequences for coal communities will be dire.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345195/original/file-20200702-2674-1i56fyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some coal workers can be retrained to work in renewables, but others cannot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Briggs receives funding from various government and non-government organisations. In 2019-20, funders for research included the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the NSW and Victorian Government and the Clean Energy Council for renewable energy jobs research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elsa Dominish receives research funding from various government and non-government organisations. In 2019-20 this includes the federal and NSW governments and the Clean Energy Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Rutovitz receives research funding from various government and non-government organisations. In 2019-20, this included the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the NSW and Victorian Governments, the Future Batteries Industry Co-operative Research Centre, and the Clean Energy Council.</span></em></p>Some coal workers have the right skills and work in the right location to get a job in renewables. But many, such as semi-skilled machine operators, cannot.Chris Briggs, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyElsa Dominish, Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyJay Rutovitz, Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.